WASHINGTON, March 20 (UPI) -- More care is needed for the 44 million Americans who care for others, said a recent study by the American Association of Retired Persons.
As the population ages, a growing number of seniors are eschewing nursing homes and receiving care from family members.
But the caregivers -- who save the U.S. healthcare system a staggering $257 billion annually by giving free care -- are largely neglected in terms of support from social networks, the report pointed out.
To put these savings in perspective, caregivers provide for free about twice as much as is now spent on professional homecare and nursing home services, the report noted.
"Family caregivers are totally taken for granted," Suzanne Mintz, president and co-founder of the National Family Caregivers Association, told United Press International. "We are the nation's long-term care system," she said.
But government policies don't seem to have caught up with that reality. For example, under current Medicare policy, physicians aren't reimbursed for their time in counseling caregivers on how best to do their jobs.
This despite the fact that most caregivers provide service for an average of eight years, according to the AARP report.
Another example where the caregiver seems ignored altogether in the current system is the fact that Medicare will only pay for manually operated beds and not electric ones, Mintz noted.
Yet while these non-paid, but critical caregivers seems currently lost in the system, their legions will continue to explode, predicted Sidney Stahl, of the behavioral and social research program at the federal National Institute on Aging.
The fastest growing segment of the population is now the over-85 age group, he told UPI, meaning that baby boomers are currently facing the challenge of caring for their parents. In 20 years the baby boomers will need care, which will be demanding for their children.
"I'm not sure we are prepared to deal with it as individuals or as a society," Stahl said.
The crunch will be particularly acute for women -- who statistically do most of the work of caregiving -- and have now joined the workforce, he said.
About one-third of all primary family caregivers are in the labor force, according to the Center on an Aging Society at Georgetown University, and more than half of working-age caregivers are employed.
"Society doesn't really recognize the social obligations of adult children to care for parents," Stahl said. "Workplaces need to better realize the stress of caregivers and more easily allow them to take leave when they need it."
But another critical part of the solution lies with state governments and advocacy groups, the AARP report said.
To ease the burden on caregivers, systematic assessment of their needs is required, the report said.
Once those needs are identified, both public and consumer-directed options should be available to ease the burden on families, said John Rother, AARP's director of policy and strategy.
"While (home caregivers) have benefits economically and help with the shortage of long-term care workers, there is a growing recognition that the caregivers need a greater level of support to make the situation a success. Taking care of caregivers is simply smart public policy," he said.
When assessing the needs of caregivers, their own health needs to be taken into account, the report said, especially if the caregiver has other responsibilities, like young children, or is also in frail health.
States like California, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Washington already have assessment systems in place.
Consumer-directed options, such as adult daycare centers and overnight nursing home stays, can go a long way toward relieving the constant stress that caregivers experience, but few public healthcare systems offer adequate assistance for these services, the report said.
California offers $3,600 annually per patient for these respite services, but Alabama provides $500 to $1500, the authors noted.
Public health agencies, like Area Agencies on Aging, can work together with caregivers to make sure their needs are met, the report added.
A system in Maine, profiled by the researchers, recruits healthcare providers to serve as resources by identifying caregivers who need support and referring them to services that may be of help.
AARP's Rother agreed that the trend toward home caregiving will only grow.
"People want to stay in their homes, surround themselves with loved ones, and maintain a greater level of control over their care as they age," he said.
"Everybody in this day and age needs to think that caregiving will at some point be part of their lives, either getting it or giving it," NFCA's Mintz said.
