Family Caregiving Research

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Sponsored by The National Council on the Aging
and CareSource
Healthy Aging Briefing Series
Family Caregiving Research
WELCOME
This session will begin promptly at 130pm
ESTPlease mute your phonePersonal
introductions are not necessaryThe moderator
will be on the line shortly
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NATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR CAREGIVING WHO WE ARE

• Nonprofit coalition of 45 national groups which
  have come together around family caregiving
• Established in 1996 to support family caregivers
  and the professionals who work with them
• Purpose of Alliance Conduct research develop
  national programs do policy analysis strengthen
  coalitions increase public awareness work
  internationally
• Reputation the go-to-place for family caregiving
  information

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Productivity Losses to U.S. Business

• MetLife Mature Market Institute in conjunction
  with the National Alliance for Caregiving
• Estimates productivity losses from employees who
  must make workplace accommodations as a result of
  caregiving responsibilities

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Key Insights and Findings

• Caregivers make work-related adjustments
• 9 left the workplace
• 3 took early retirement
• 6 left work entirely
• 10 moved to a part-time schedule

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Key Insights and Findings

• Caregiving can impact a companys overall
  profitability
• Caregiving costs U.S. employers between 17.1 and
  33.6 billion in lost productivity annually
• Top 3 costs to employers for full-time employed
  caregivers
• Replacing employees 6.6 billion
• Workday interruptions 6.3 billion
• Absenteeism 5.1 billion

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Profile of Caregivers

• The majority of family caregivers (79) are
  providing care to someone over the age of 50
• Nearly 60 of those caring for an adult 50 are
  working
• Nearly 40 of caregivers are men
• The average age of the caregiver for a person 50
  is 47
• Most caregivers provide unpaid care to a parent
  or grandparent

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Total Costs to Employers of Full-Time Employed
Intense Caregivers
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Total Costs to Employers of All Full-Time
Employed Caregivers
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What Does This Mean?

• Longevity Aging Workforce More workers with
  caregiving responsibilities
• What can employers do to create a mutually
  beneficial workplace?

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What Can Employers Do?

• Benefits, such as flextime, telecommuting, and
  job-sharing
• Programs to provide respite care, adult day
  services, and caregiver support groups
• Information, referral, and educational programs
• Employee and/or employer funded long-term care
  insurance

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Eldercare Calculator

• To help employers estimate their own productivity
  costs for working caregivers, we have created an
  Eldercare calculator
• It can be accessed at
• www.eldercarecalculator.org

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Caregiver Health as a Public Health Issue

• In conjunction with Evercare, the Alliance
  conducted a study of Caregivers in Decline
• Objectives
• Better understand the needs of caregivers whose
  health is affected by caregiving
• Identify programs and services to help them
  attain better health
• Self Reported Health
• General population (9 fair or poor)
• General caregiver population (17 fair or poor)
• Caregiver doing intense caregiving (35 fair or
  poor)

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Method

• 12 qualitative interviews and four small focus
  groups with caregivers (Nov 2005 - January 2006)
• Online survey of 528 caregivers, using Greenfield
  Onlines panel (July 2006)
• All participants say caregiving made their health
  worse
• All are now in fair/poor health

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How much worse has health gotten as a result of
providing care?
n528
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In what way did health become worse as a result
of providing care?

Pain/aching60
n528
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How is self-care affected?
Are the following types of self-care better, the
same, or worse than before you started caregiving?
Sleeping Eating Exercising
n528
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How is medical care affected?
How often do you do each of the following
compared to before you began providing care?
Less Often
Go to your dentist to have teeth cleaned
Periodic vision tests
Periodic routine medical exams
Prostate exams (men n78)
Mammograms (women n450)
Flu shots
n528
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How is medical care affected?
At any point since providing care, have you
Yes
Not gone to the doctor as often as you should
Missed any doctors appointments
n528
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Reasons for not going to doctor
Major Reason
The needs of my family come first over my own
The needs of the person I care for come first
over my own
I have no time to care for myself with all my
other responsibilities
I am too tired
I have no money to go to the doctor
I cant get away because nobody can replace me as
a caregiver
I do not have transportation to get to the doctor
n415 Missed appt or have not gone to doctor
when they felt the need
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What can help?
Very/somewhatlikely to use

• Mobile health
• Saves time
• Makes it easier for medical care to fit into
  schedule
• Caregiver may not need to arrange back-up
  caregiver
• Services of value flu shots, blood tests for
  diabetes, blood pressure monitoring, eye exams,
  mammograms, lab work, prescriptions, counseling

n528
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Characteristics of Programs that Help Caregivers
Achieve Better Health
Saves time
Relieves person of caregiving responsibilities
for a period of time
Reduces stress
Makes person feel cared about, valued
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Trends in family caregiving

• Growth in public awareness/media attention
• Fewer and fewer family caregivers AND paid
  caregivers
• More men (no longer just a womens issue)
• Impacts on work increasing long-distance
  caregiving increasing
• New technology to support caregivers VA, CAST,
  robotics
• Increased attention by policymakers
• Increased international attention

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Caregiving and Technology

• Focus is on keeping loved one at home as long as
  possible
• Assistive technology
• High-tech devices
• Internet based
• information websites
• online community
• resources

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Intersection of Family Caregivers and Direct Care
Workers

• Training
• Assessment of skills and needs
• Paying for serviceCash Counseling
• Communication/Cultural Differences

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State and Local Caregiver Coalitions Who Are
They?

• Composition
• Disease-specific groups (e.g., Alzheimers)
• Aging, caregiver, and disability groups (e.g.,
  AARP)
• Government entities (e.g., local area agencies on
  aging)
• Corporations (especially those with eldercare
  programs)
• Providers (e.g., hospitals, adult day care)

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State Local Caregiver Coalitions What Roles
Do They Play?

• Roles
• Sharing best practices
• Doing community/regional caregiver needs
  assessment
• Developing additional caregiver resources (e.g.,
  respite)
• Increasing public awareness
• Ultimately
• Caregiver empowerment
• New legislation

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Support to Coalitions

• Virtual Network
• Training in Sustainability, Advocacy

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All Research Described (and more) is on

• Alliance website www.caregiving.org

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QUESTIONS?
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Dont Forget Your Free Copy of Aging in Stride
NCOA and Caresource are pleased to offer
first-time registrants for this Healthy Aging
Briefing Series a complimentary copy of the book,
Aging in Stride, which includes the new
supplement Just In Case Emergency Readiness for
Older Adults and Caregivers. To receive your
copy, please visit www.AgingInStride.org/NCOAoffer
. Or just email service_at_caresource.com with your
name, title, organization, mailing address, phone
number, and date of the Briefing you participated
in. One free copy per registrant, please.