Senior Living
2008-12-01 14:19:00
What is an informal caregiver?
Answer: Informal care is defined as “Ongoing assistance with a broad range of tasks, such as personal care, household help, and activities of daily living, from family, friends, and others who are generally unpaid.” Today, family members assume most of the responsibility for the care of chronically disabled family members, typically with limited or no help from services agencies or paid providers. Most people with chronic disabilities could not continue to live outside of institutional setting without the help from informal caregivers
According to a national survey on non-institutionalized persons with chronic disabilities, 83% of those under 65 had help exclusively from family members. In 1997 the estimated economic value of informal care was $196 billion, compared to $83 billion spent on nursing home care and $32 billion spent on home health care.
Women are more likely to provide personal care assistance, with an estimated 59% to 75% of caregivers being women, whereas men are more likely to take on more instrumental tasks such as financial management. Moreover, women often have multiple roles in addition to care giving responsibilities, including hands-on health care provider, care manager, companion, surrogate decision maker and advocate. Informal caregivers also act as gatekeepers, intermediaries, care managers, facilitators and advocates functioning as partners with service providers.
Being an informal caregiver often has health consequences since caregivers are less likely to adhere to an exercise schedule, get enough rest, and watch their diet. Additionally, caregivers are more likely to be depressed than their age-matched counterpart and often suffer financial and work related stress as a result of providing care over a long period of time.
However, there are also positive effects from being a caregiver. For example; giving meaning to a person’s life, gaining a sense of mastery over the challenges faced and the enhanced relationship that is reached with the care recipient. Frequently there is a degree of personal growth that can come with the satisfaction and pride a caregiver takes in the fact that the recipient can remain at home and out of a nursing home.
During the past 25 years there has been tremendous growth in caregivers’ services and support, as well as federal and state policy changes to benefit the caregivers. Programs like training in care giving techniques, web sites for caregivers, problem solving and time management methods, communication skills training, in home respite, adult day programs, payment for caregivers, home modifications and adaptive/assertive devices for safety and monitoring. Informal caregivers are one of the most unrecognized, yet most needed people we have in our society and to them I say thank you! For more information on caregiver support contact your local Area Agency on Aging.
