National Family Caregivers Month

November is National Family Caregivers Month. Caregivers provide a much needed service. According to a report by Indiana University, these informal caregivers provide a service that saves Medicare $375 billion dollars a year. The statistics are staggering regarding caregivers in the last few years. The following statistics are from the  National Alliance for Caregiving website: Approximately 43.5 million caregivers have provided unpaid care to an adult or child in the last 12 months. [National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP. (2015). Caregiving in the U.S.] About 34.2 million Americans have provided unpaid care to an adult age 50 or older in the last 12 months. [National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP. (2015). Caregiving in the U.S.] The majority of caregivers (82%) care for one other adult, while 15% care for 2 adults, and 3% for 3 or more adults. [National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP. (2015). Caregiving in the U.S.] Approximately 39.8 million caregivers provide care to adults (aged 18+) with a disability or illness or 16.6% of Americans. [Coughlin, J. (2010). Estimating the Impact of Caregiving and Employment on Well-Being: Outcomes & Insights in Health Management.] About 15.7 million adult family caregivers care for someone who has Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia. [Alzheimer’s Association. (2015). 2015 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures.] This caregiving may involve such clinical tasks as doling out medications or assistance gettin...
Source: Dragonfly - Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Tags: Health Literacy/Consumer Health Health Observances Source Type: news