The National Women's Health Information Center tells us that most Americans will be unpaid caregivers at some point in their lives. Over 20% of the U.S. population today offers caregiving support to a loved one. About 65% of these unpaid caregivers are women.
Women are the backbone of family caregiving in the United States. Many struggle under the burden of caregiving responsibilities. As informal caregivers, often with full-time jobs, they are impacted emotionally, physically, and financially. The strain is compounded by not knowing where to turn for personal support and assistance.
Check with the neighbors on your block. You will probably find at least one unpaid caregiver providing long-term support for a loved one. More than likely, the caregiver will be female. She may be caring for a child, spouse, relative, friend, or neighbor. Many will be caring for a parent focused on aging in place (staying in the home versus an assisted living facility).
Women caregivers provide key resources for maintaining quality of life for loved ones in their care. For many aging parents, staying in their home is considered priceless. When a daughter, daughter-in-law, sister, wife, or friend is the caregiver, aging in place remains a viable option. The cost of assisted care is greatly reduced or nonexistent when family resources are utilized.
The impact of caregiving is both from a health and financial perspective. Statistics show that unpaid caregivers have higher stress levels and more chronic health conditions. Personal health can be impacted especially when caregiving responsibilities are not shared among family or supplemented with professional (paid) caregiving.
Women typically experience caregiving stress more often than their male counterparts. Almost three fourths reported feeling emotionally and physically impacted by caregiving responsibilities. They express guilt, isolation, and exhaustion from juggling career, family, and caring for a loved one.
As unpaid caregivers, women often pay a financial price. According to the Family Caregiver Alliance website, about one-third of working women decrease their work hours to accommodate caregiving demands. Others take a leave of absence, work part-time work, resign, or retire early. The long-term financial impact may be severe. These women may have fewer retirement funds and smaller social security payouts as a result.
It is important that resources are made available to women caregivers to share the workload. Technologies are emerging that can offer new ways of connecting to family and friends for distance caregiving and support. These include websites that track personal health, Internet forums that connect caregivers to each other, online tools for finding local resources, downloadable tip sheets, and much more. Here are some examples:
The National Women's Health Information Center at womenshealth.gov offers information and resources for female caregivers. It is a federal clearinghouse providing a wealth of information and resources related to women's health.
The Family Caregiver Alliance offers on its site a public forum for caregivers. It posts a variety of resources for caregivers. The organization plays an advocacy role that is key to gaining local, state, and federal support.
The National Family Caregivers Association website posts that it, "Educates, supports, empowers and speaks up for the more than 50 million Americans who care for loved ones with a chronic illness or disability or the frailties of old age." The site connects family caregivers with others through its Pen Pal program. It also has an online story bank with stories from caregivers across the nation.
No woman should feel alone or overwhelmed in shouldering the burden of caregiving responsibilities. Individuals and organizations are joining forces to address this issue.
S. A. Becker, Ph.D. has conducted extensive research in web usability for older adults and technologies for aging caregivers. Dr. Becker is the co-creator of a social network called OurVSN.com http://www.ourvsn.com connecting families in support of good health, distance caregiving, and aging in place. OurVSN lets a caregiver track personal health and the health of others to keep private or share with others in a virtual support network.
OurVSNhealthstore.com http://www.ourvsnhealthstore.com is a sister site offering a range of health products to support better living.
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