12/19/2009 10:21:00 PM Survey finds nearly one in three people are caregivers
By WEST YAVAPAI GUIDANCE CLINIC Special to the Courier
A new report, "Caregiving in the U.S. 2009," indicates that nearly one in three American adults serve as a family caregiver. The study is by the National Alliance for Caregiving, in collaboration with AARP and the MetLife Foundation. It is based on interviews with 1,480 caregivers chosen at random and offers a national profile of people caring for adults, the elderly and children with special needs. It follows similar studies conducted in 2004 and 1997, but for the first time, caregivers for children, as well as those caring for adults over the age of 18, were surveyed.
Notable findings include:
One in seven caregivers provides care, over and above regular parenting, to a child with special needs.
Caregiving lasts an average of 4.6 years.
Caregivers provide an average of 20 hours of care per week.
The main reasons people need care are old age (12 percent), Alzheimer's disease (10 percent), mental/emotional illness (7 percent), cancer (7 percent), heart disease (5 percent) and stroke (5 percent).
Illnesses/problems for which children need care are led by ADD/ADHD, autism, mental/emotional illness and developmental delay/mental retardation.
Caregivers of children provide the most time-intensive care.
The report echoes the findings of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) depression and schizophrenia surveys, which include the perspective of caregivers for people living with these serious mental illnesses. All these reports suggest that caregivers face daily stresses that can impact their own health and other relationships. For example, NAMI's depression survey, released in November, found that while almost one-half (48 percent) of caregivers for people with depression have been diagnosed with depression themselves, only about 25 percent were engaged in treatment at the time of the survey.
A "take-away" from these reports? It is crucial that caregivers not lose site of themselves in the caregiving process. Caregivers should make time to focus on their own health and wellness, along with that of their loved ones.
