'The Evercare®/National Alliance for Caregiving Survey of The Economic Downturn and Its Impact on Family Caregiving,' (April 2009)
found that during the past 12 months, almost 20 percent of caregivers report a decline in the quality of care their loved ones receive as a direct result of the recession, and 14 percent say the amount of care they have been able to provide for others during this time period has decreased. The survey is published by Evercare, UnitedHealthcare and the National Alliance on Caregiving.
On January 15, the National Center on Caregiving (NCC) at Family Caregiver Alliance submitted its 2009 National Agenda to then President-elect Barack Obama and his transition team. The agenda lays out the NCC's policy priorities which include: authorizing and funding a National Resource Center on Caregiving, modernizing Medicare and Medicaid to better support family caregivers, commissioning an Institute of Medicine (IOM) study on family caregiving, providing adequate funding for the National Family Caregiver Support Program and the Lifespan Respite Act, expanding the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and other paid leave policies, promoting policies that expand the geriatric care workforce, enacting legislation providing refundable tax credits for family caregivers and employers, and strengthening Social Security by recognizing the work of family caregivers.
UnitedHealth Group's Evercare® organization and the National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC) (http://www.caregiving.org) have released their findings from the National Hispanic Family Caregiving Survey. The study, the largest comprehensive look at Hispanic caregivers, found that more than one third of Hispanic households (36 percent) have at least one family member caring for an older loved one - a larger percentage than all U.S. caregiving households (21 percent). It also revealed that becoming a family caregiver caused a major shift in the working situation of Hispanics, a change which could have dramatic personal implications as the current fiscal crisis continues to unfold in the United States. The entire study, Evercare Study of Hispanic Caregiving in the U.S., can be viewed in English (pdf) or Spanish (pdf) at the NAC's website.
http://www.aarp.org/research/housing-mobility/caregiving/i13_caregiving.html This AARP Public Policy Institute report presents recent data on the economic value of family caregiving at the national and state levels and summarizes findings about costs to caregivers and how caregiving helps contain health care and long-term care costs. In 2007, nationally about 34 million family caregivers provided care at any given point in time, and about 52 million provided care at some time during the year. The estimated economic value of their unpaid contributions was approximately $375 billion, up from an estimated $350 billion in 2006. In New York State, 2.2 million caregivers provided care at any given time and 3.3 million caregivers provided care at any time during the year; the estimated value of that care is $25 billion, up from $24 billion in 2006.
The 2008 report provides updates to AARP's 2007 report that can be found at: http://www.aarp.org/research/housing-mobility/caregiving/dd158_caregiving.html
The Alzheimer's Association's 2009 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures report is a comprehensive statistical abstract of U.S. data on Alzheimer's disease. According to the new 2009 report, Alzheimer's disease triples healthcare costs for Americans aged 65 and older! The report not only reveals the tremendous impact Alzheimer's will have in the near future, it also highlights the current social and economic plight of the 5.3 million Americans currently living with this devastating disease, and their families.
Download the report today to learn more.
In June 2007, the MetLife Mature Market Institute and the National Alliance for Caregiving convened a one-day Caregiving Research Summit in Washington, DC. Ten experts in caregiving research were invited to present. The purpose of the Summit was to identify gaps in caregiving research and identify areas for potential exploration across academic disciplines. You can access the report at http://www.caregiving.org/.
The National Center on Caregiving at Family Caregiver Alliance has released proceedings from its national conference, which was convened in Chicago this March in partnership with the American Society on Aging (ASA). Key experts from practice, policy and research attended the conference. The proceedings convey the main ideas and findings from the conference.
