Cost of Informal Care Rises
Members of the Baby Boomer generation are increasingly being faced with having to care for their parents, and at a rising cost ”“ an average of $303,880 in lost earnings for each informal caregiver ”“ according to a new study.
The MetLife Study of Caregiving Costs to Working Caregivers, released last month by the MetLife Mature Market Institute, said that there are more than 10 million Americans over the age of 50 who are currently caring for their aging parents.
Those caregivers face an estimated average loss of $303,880 each ”” $324,044 for women and $283,716 for men ”” based on lost wages, lost potential Social Security benefits, and lost potential pension benefits due to leaving the labor force early or due to working reduced hours.
Judy Santamaria, director of the Visiting Nurse Service of New York”™s Family Caregiver Support Team, said that she expects the amount of informal caregivers to increase in New York.
“I think we are seeing increasing numbers of family caregivers in this role,” she said. “Some caregivers are of the sandwich generation of middle-age people caring for their children and elderly parents.”
She attributed this increase to advances in medical technology that are allowing people to live longer, in addition to sometimes steep nursing-home fees and a tendency among the elderly to prefer living at home rather than moving to a nursing home or assisted-living facility.
“For the average person, the actual cost of nursing homes is very, very expensive and unaffordable to the average family,” Santamaria said. “However, we see that more and more people choose to stay out of nursing homes when they can because they prefer to remain a member of their community.”
According to the MetLife study, the proportion of adult children providing personal care or financial assistance to a parent has more than tripled over the past 15 years, with roughly 25 percent of adult children in the United States currently providing these types of care to a parent.
The study estimated that the total lost wages, pensions, and Social Security benefits of these caregivers at nearly $3 trillion.
In addition, a 2009 caregiver report by the New York Office for the Aging identified nearly 2.2 million New Yorkers who act as informal caregivers to aging relatives.
That report estimated the value of their collective care at $25 billion if paid for at the market rate and also estimated that those informal caregivers save the state Medicaid program more than $12 billion annually.
Santamaria lauded the adults who have sacrificed their time and, oftentimes, working hours to help care for parents and relatives.
“We see so many caregivers willing to make the life changes necessary to provide that care,” she said.
The VNSNY offers a number of programs to support these caregivers, ranging from seminars that have been offered around Westchester to one-on-one counseling, in addition to in-home care services that the VNSNY provides.
In the past year, seminars have been held in White Plains and Eastchester by the VNSNY that have offered tips on how to prevent caregiver burnout and how to balance care giving with work and other activities.
Partners in Care, an affiliate of the VNSNY based at 170 Hamilton Ave. in White Plains, also offers in-home nursing services for patients already receiving care from the VNSNY or for patients looking to pay out-of-pocket.
“What we provide typically for someone ”¦ is personal care and companionship,” said Lainie Messina, vice president of private care service for Partners in Care. “We would assess what their needs are (and) match what they”™re looking for in somebody.”
These services provided by VNSNY (as well as a similar program called VNSNY CHOICE that is not yet available to Westchester residents) are aimed at supporting overburdened caregivers, Santamaria said.
In addition, VNSNY staff is trained to identify the signs of burnout, she said.
“All of our nurses are trained to identify caregivers who are at risk,” Santamaria said. “When we say at risk, we mean at risk for burnout, stress, (or) perhaps finding it difficult to provide the clinical care that they need to.”