  By Abigail Abrams - Time Magazine Online
Family caregivers provide essential, often unpaid work in the U.S.: they help family members with tasks like bathing and eating, coordinating insurance coverage and managing medications. But what a caregiver looks like in America is changing. Although the typical unpaid family caregiver is a 49-year-old white woman, about 10 million Americans between ages 18 and 34, of all different backgrounds, are now the caregivers for a family member or friend, according to a new report by AARP. One out of four family caregivers in the U.S. is a millennial. And as Baby Boomers age and need more support, this young group is becoming an increasingly important part of the caregiving workforce. More than half of millennial caregivers are now people of color, according to the report, and they are more likely than any other generation to balance caregiving with employment. The report, which draws on data from the 2015 Caregiving in the U.S. study by AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving, found that 27% of millennial caregivers are Hispanic, while 18% are black and 8% are Asian American/Pacific Islanders. Less than half (44%) are white — yet two-thirds of older caregivers are white. Nearly three quarters of millennial caregivers are employed, according to the new report, and 53% work full time. They also spend an average of 21 hours per week on caregiving, or the equivalent of a part time job. More than one in four millennials spends over 20 hours each week providing care, and roughly one in five provides care for at least 40 hours each week. “Many of these millennials are not just working and providing this care, but are trying to figure out, ‘how do I balance all of this?’” says Jean Accius, an expert on long-term care services and supports at the AARP’s public policy institute, which provides guides for different communities of caregivers. “At this time in their life, a typical millennial may be thinking about going on vacation, hanging out with friends and potentially getting married, but these millennials are doing things like wound care and bathing.” The report finds that Latino millennials often face increased pressure, as they work more hours each week on average and spend more time providing care than young adults of other backgrounds. Some of this has to do with the fact that Hispanic Americans are more likely to live in multi-generational households, Accius says. Tasks like navigating government health systems or coordinating care between multiple providers can also be particularly challenging for families that have members whose first language is not English. Even as millennial caregivers are spending much of their time working, over half earn less than $50,000, according to the report. They spend an average of 27% of this income on caregiving-related expenses, a higher portion than any other generation. And other surveys have shown that most millennials have some form of debt. Roughly 70% of college graduates have student loan debt, and the Federal Reserve has estimated that the average monthly student loan payment is $393. “You can’t have a conversation about millennials balancing school and career and work and care without talking about the student debt crisis,” says C. Grace Whiting, president and CEO of the National Alliance for Caregiving. “If someone is in the beginning of their career and they’re indebted and they’re also caregiving, it just adds more stress and strain to that experience.” Another common source of stress is the impact that caregiving responsibilities can have on a person’s career. 54% of millennial caregivers say that caregiving has impacted their job in significant ways, according to the report. Yet millennials are much less likely to tell their supervisors or colleagues at work about their caregiving responsibilities, meaning they are often navigating alone. One sign of progress is that millennial men are nearly as likely to provide care as women, according to the report. “The way that millennials think about gendered work or gendered care roles is changing,” says Whiting. The U.S. is already facing a shortage of caregivers, and the increasing gender and racial diversity of millennial caregivers will be necessary to support all those who need help in the future, she says. “We see, especially among millennials, that everybody bears some responsibility, and we need to care for each other.” http://time.com/5282340/millennial-caregivers-baby-boomers/
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 Growing old is not for sissies, as the bumper sticker says, and as anyone who has entered midlife can attest. But a new study finds that despite the physical and mental toll of time, people actually feel better as they age -- not worse.
In fact, when California researchers asked more than 1,000 people aged 50 to 99 in San Diego county to rank how well they were aging on scale of 1 to 10, the mean score was 8.2 -- and even higher for those in their 90s. “I think I ranked myself pretty high. I think it was up around 10. Why not?” said Gordon "Gordy" Shields, 94, one of the participants in the Successful AGing Evaluation Study, or SAGE, conducted by scientists at the University of California, San Diego, and Stanford University. To Shields, who became a world-class cycling champion after age 50, aging is just another part of the life process. “You can enjoy aging as long as you accept it,” said Shields, a former high school and community college teacher and counselor. That’s despite the undeniable declines in physical and mental abilities that come with age. Study participants were divided into groups by decade from those in their 50s to those in their 90s. People in the older age groups scored progressively worse on measures of health and cognitive function, even as they scored higher on their own ratings of successful aging. Those results were not what the researchers were expecting, said Dr. Dilip V. Jeste, a UCSD professor of psychiatry and president of the American Psychiatric Association, who described the findings as “eye-popping.” “We were astounded by how physical disability and self-rated successful aging went in diametrically opposite directions with aging,” Jeste told NBC News. The results also suggested that the more resilient people are -- or able to cope with acute stressors -- the better they aged. Conversely, people who reported higher levels of depression were less likely to say they were aging well. “Increasing resilience and reducing depression might have effects on successful aging as strong as that of reducing physical disability,” the study authors wrote. The researchers recruited 1,006 study participants in San Diego county using a large telephone database to ensure they were randomly selected. They screened out anyone who was in a nursing home, or who needed daily nursing care, and those who had dementia, a terminal illness or required hospice care. The idea was to survey older people who weren’t necessarily healthier than average, but who weren’t predisposed to disability and illness, either. They conducted telephone interviews and then administered detailed written surveys to assess the effects of aging. What the researchers found was that in their 50s, participants who were asked how well they were aging posted a mean score of 7.7 on the 10-point scale, and 49 points on a 100-point scale of physical function. Those in their 90s, however, rated themselves at 8.6 for aging successfully, even though their mean score was only 37.3 for physical ability. The results were similar for cognitive function measured during the telephone interview. “I think this should really change people’s outlook about aging,” Jeste said. “Usually when we think about aging, we think it’s bad.” The participants were mostly white and mostly better educated than average, the study reported. Cynics might ask whether healthy, well-educated people living in sunny San Diego might be more likely to report aging well than seniors in less desirable circumstances. But Jeste said that the results should hold up nationwide. "We don't think our findings are restricted to the population living in San Diego." The new results are consistent with previous research that shows that people are depressed in middle age, but then become happier as they get older, Jeste said. That may be because older folks likely have grappled with the most contentious questions of life -- work, family, finances -- and come to some resolution. “As people get older, they are less bothered by negative stimuli,” Jeste said. “You take things in stride. Regret becomes less common.” That makes sense to Laura Carstensen, founding director of the Stanford Center on Longevity, who was not involved in the SAGE study. Older people with shrinking horizons know their time is limited and they seem to appreciate what’s left. “They tend to focus on the here and now,” she said. “That’s good for mental health.” For Gordon Shields, who was recently sidelined from cycling because of heart problems, aging well is all about accepting the next challenge of life. “The main thing is to keep involved, not only physically but mentally and socially,” the great-great-grandfather said. “You accept the process and adapt to it,” he added. “Don’t fight it.” JoNel Aleccia and JoNel Aleccia, Senior Writer NBC News |
AuthorSummer Jackson, the author of this Age-Friendly Blog is an advocate for aging, and she insists that we all can live an unprecedented quality of life as we age. She believes that accomplishing this requires educating people of all ages, and involving people, organizations, and community leaders in a shared process. Read on. You will find her posts to be insightful, fun, and inspiring for people of all ages... Archives
April 2023
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