Where Have the Informal Caregivers Gone?

They are the backbone of our health care delivery system. Yet 70% work simultaneously while providing care to an aging parent. As many as 84% of seniors rely on assistance from informal caregivers. Who will provide the care to aging boomers when it is their turn?

There is also a shift in what informal caregivers have traditionally done as compared with the support they are now expected to do for a loved one returning home after hospitalization.

Personal planning is therefore, taking on a more important role than ever before. Anyone who has ever hired paid caregivers knows it does not come cheap.

Society has relied on family caregivers for many decades. As the population continues to age, will there be sufficient informal caregivers to care for the elder population?

With smaller families than in the past there are fewer adult children. More families rely on dual incomes just to get by. So many are working while simultaneously raising children.

We live in a more mobile society so there is a tendency for adult children to live in different cities or provinces.

All of these trends mean the need for formal (paid) caregivers is increasing. This is happening at a time when the government is dealing with cutbacks in funding. Today, 80 to 90% of home care is provided by family members.