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| Posted to Website: | 02/22/2005 |
What is Caregiving?
Caregivers provide unpaid help to older adults who are living in the community and need assistance to continue living safely in their own homes. They include spouses, adult children, adult relatives and friends. These caregivers may provide assistance such as shopping, bathing, dressing or preparing meals, or they might arrange for and oversee services such as home maintenance, paying bills or other like services. Though it is often rewarding, caregiving can be stressful -- physically, mentally and emotionally. Experience shows that caregivers need to set limits, care for themselves and involve others in caregiving tasks. Caregivers, however, don't always know what help is available or how to access it. Many times they are desperate for assistance and respite from caregiving tasks before they even begin the search for help.
The efforts of caregivers save tax dollars for state and local governments who are faced with the challenge of covering the health and long-term care costs of people who are ill, have chronic disabilities, and have no means to pay for needed services. Nationwide, it is estimated that if the work of caregivers had to be replaced by paid home care aides, the cost would be $45-75 billion per year. Paid home care is the exception, not the rule, for the majority of older adults living at home with chronic health care needs that limit their functioning. Without caregivers, seniors who have been able to continue to live at home might need institutionalization in a long-term care facility and would become more, if not totally, dependent on state and local tax dollars.
For additional information and assistance, consider contacting your local caregiver specialist:
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