Eldercare responsibilities strain careers, marriages... More than one-third
of care recipients under-medicate themselves, skip meals
June 9, 2004 - More
than one-third (35%) of caregivers who work outside the home and 30% of
those who are married believe that eldercare responsibilities have
strained their job performance and marriage, according to a national
survey of caregivers released today by SeniorBridge Family, a provider
of home-based eldercare services.
The survey - which
polled men and women who care for an aging, parent, friend or relative
at home or in an independent living facility - found that caregivers
spend an average of 10 hours per week coordinating or actively providing
care.
Despite their
sacrifices, 48% of the caregivers surveyed lack confidence in the
quality of their caregiving arrangements. An even higher percentage
(64%) is dissatisfied or only marginally satisfied with the convenience
of these arrangements. By point of comparison, only 29% of the survey
respondents who rely on outside childcare services worry about the
quality of their children's care, and only 35% are dissatisfied with the
convenience of these services.
"Most
caregivers are time-starved and overwhelmed by the complexity of their
caregiving responsibilities," notes Larry Sosnow, Chief Executive
Officer of SeniorBridge Family. "Fully 80% of the survey
respondents work full-time outside the home and are juggling eldercare,
childcare and job responsibilities. At the same time, many are caring
for patients with increasingly serious physical and cognitive
impairments - conditions such as Alzheimer's Disease and debilitating
arthritis, which are on the rise due to longer life expectancies."
Home Alone
While care
recipients in the SeniorBridge Family study receive, on average, 16 to
20 hours of care from all caregivers combined - paid and unpaid - nearly
half (46%) of the men and women surveyed believe that there are
additional hours of care that are needed but not provided. One in ten
estimate that care recipients need - but are not receiving - more than
30 hours of additional care per week. Half believe that care recipients
need eleven or more additional hours of care per week.
Perhaps as a result
of this shortfall, nearly half (44%) of the survey respondents report
that care recipients have missed meals or suffered from poor nutritional
intake, while an additional one-third (32%) have visited an emergency
room or sustained injuries from an accident. Another 22% have been alone
at home when an emergency occurred.
"As the time
demands and costs associated with eldercare escalate, many caregivers
feel they have no choice than but to cut back on care and
supervision," says Sosnow. "The result, unfortunately, is a
sharp increase in nutritional problems, injuries and drug noncompliance.
All too often, there is no care coordinator in place who is responsible
for ensuring a comprehensive and consistent level of caregiving."
The New Crisis in
Prescription Drugs
Nearly half (43%) of
the caregivers surveyed report that their patients take five or more
prescription drugs each day, and 12% report daily regimens of nine or
more drugs. On a weekly basis, the percentages escalate to 65% for five
or more drugs and 51% for nine or more. While 14% of caregivers believe
that the person for whom they care has over-medicated themselves over
the past 12 months, non-compliance is a far bigger problem. More than
one-third (37%) of caregivers say the person for whom they care has
under-medicated themselves or forgotten to take medication during the
past year.
Among the survey's
other key findings:
-- High Anxiety:
Nearly half (41%) of the caregivers surveyed report that they worry six
or more times per week about the well-being of the person for whom the
care, ahead of worries about their children (27%), job security (22%),
retirement savings (23%), their partner's health (17%), the stock market
(17%), terrorism (12%) or their own health (10%). "Despite the fact
that we're at war and the economy is volatile, it is eldercare concerns
that are keeping caregivers up at night," notes Sosnow.
-- Sibling Issues -
Cracks Emerge in the Ties That Bind: Although most (90%) of the
caregivers surveyed indicate that they have siblings, few receive
substantial help from them. Fully 60% indicate that their brothers and
sisters do not provide significant caregiving support, and 31% believe
that caregiving has fueled family tensions. Caregivers with all male
siblings are less likely to receive support than those with a mix of
male and female siblings (26% vs. 45%).
-- An Expensive
Proposition: Among caregivers who currently employ paid full- or
part-time help, nearly half (43%) spend more than $500 per week and 20%
spend more than $1,000 per week on outside care. Most (65%) subsidize
the cost of these services with the care recipient's savings, while 52%
reach into their own pockets to pay for care. Respondents who view
themselves as primary caregivers (50%) are somewhat more likely to use
the care recipient's own insurance or savings to fund outside care than
are supplemental caregivers (33%) or long-distance caregivers (37%).
-- Misunderstanding
Medicare: Caregivers overestimate the percentage of eldercare costs
covered by Medicare. While only 3% of the survey respondents expect
Medicare to cover all (i.e. 100%) of current and future eldercare costs,
26% expect to be reimbursed for most (75% or more) of their care-related
expenses and 50% expect half or more of costs to be covered. In reality,
Medicare will typically cover only 5-20% of the cost of eldercare.
-- Squeezed From all
Sides: Caregivers rank "juggling caregiving with other
work/personal commitments" as their number one problem, cited by
40% of respondents. Other major problems include "providing care
from a distance" (30%), "dealing with other family
members" (27%), "coordinating care among doctors, care
providers and outside specialists" (27%) and "handling care
recipients' emotional problems" (25%). Men are slightly more
concerned than women with "providing care from a distance"
(35% vs. 25%), while women are more concerned than men with "coping
with their own emotions of fear, anger and guilt" (25% vs. 16%) and
"handling care recipients' emotional problems" (28% vs. 22%).
-- Help On The Way:
While roughly one-third (34%) of the survey respondents currently
receive help from paid caregivers, 68% of those without outside help
indicate that they are very likely or somewhat likely to employ a paid
caregiver in the future.
-- Male Caregiving
Comes of Age: Surprisingly, an almost equal percentage of men and women
describe themselves as primary caregivers. More than one-third of men
(36%) and women (34%) identify themselves as the main providers of care,
while roughly the same percentage (36% of men and 31% of women) get help
from one or more paid care providers. Nearly one in six men (14%) and
women (15%) live at a distance and spend most of their time coordinating
care. Overall, women spend slightly more time providing and coordinating
care than men, with 24% of the women surveyed spending more than 10
hours per week on care, compared with 20% of men.
-- Mothering Our
Mothers: While 22% of the caregivers surveyed are caring for their
fathers, twice as many (44%) are caring for their mothers. Other
recipients of care include grandparents (10%), friends (7%),
aunts/uncles (4%), spouses (4%) and brothers/sisters (2%). Male
caregivers are equally as likely to be caring for their mothers as
female caregivers.
The SeniorBridge
Family Caregiver Study was conducted by an online research firm during
April 2004. The survey polled 514 adult caregivers across the U.S. who
currently spend (or recently spent) more than two hours per week caring
for an aging friend or relative and have total annual household income
of at least $100,000. While all of the caregivers surveyed provide or
coordinate home-based care, 22% reside with the care recipient, 32% live
within 10 miles of the care recipient's home and 14% live more than 200
miles away. Roughly one-quarter (27%) of the respondents live more than
30 miles from the patients for whom they care.
Founded in 2000,
SeniorBridge Family is a national provider of home-based eldercare
services. Unlike traditional homecare, which treats illness, the
SeniorBridge Family model addresses the well-being, comfort and
functionality of clients while offering substantial practical and
emotional support to their families. The company provides families and
patients with an interdisciplinary team of highly qualified
professionals, specializing in the field of aging and chronic care. All
SeniorBridge Family services - which include medical (nursing, home
health care, nutritional counseling/monitoring) and wellness services
(e.g., social work, exercise, cognitive fitness, nutrition, financial
and pre-legal services management) - are designed to help patients stay
in their homes or assisted living facilities as long as possible. The
company has offices in Baltimore, Boca Raton, Boston, Cleveland,
Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, Hackensack, Indianapolis, Montclair, New York,
Pittsburgh, San Antonio, Sarasota and West Palm Beach. For more
information about SeniorBridge Family, please visit the company's Web
site at www.seniorbridgefamily.com
June 9, 2004 - More
than one-third (35%) of caregivers who work outside the home and 30% of
those who are married believe that eldercare responsibilities have
strained their job performance and marriage, according to a national
survey of caregivers released today by SeniorBridge Family, a provider
of home-based eldercare services.