Over 50 million Americans are providing unpaid caregiving many from family and friends. In this excerpt from this Friday's Delmarva Today Delmarva Public Media's Don Rush talks with Dorinda Adams, AARP Maryland volunteer who tracks legislation, about what faces this generation.
RUSH: Around 53 million Americans are providing unpaid caregiving assistance. Many are families and friends with the majority of them women. This is Don Rush. They spend around 26 hours per week providing support, while a quarter of them are spending 41 hours or more. And with the aging population, that could increase over time. The Mac Center is the site of today's national family caregiver appreciation event. We talked with Dorinda Adams, who helps track legislation about what faces these caregivers.
ADAMS: I don't think that we thought about the need that family members were going to have to play a critical role in ensuring the wellbeing of their aging family members. I mean, I think that it was always, when I [remember] my grandmother talking, it was often that an aging member would live with one adult child or another, or sometimes they went from home to home. I don't think that we were thinking about complexity of care needs as we do now. I often hear that family caregivers are being expected to do roles that really require training for ensuring safety and wellbeing. And I'm not sure that we are providing all of that kind of support.
RUSH: Do you think that because people are living longer because of the kind of services that we're now able to provide, the advancement of medicine, for example, which makes living longer and aging much more complex than say for instance it was maybe three or four decades ago. Do you think that's compounded the problem?
ADAMS: Absolutely. Especially rural areas. There's a shortage of the paraprofessional and the professional care given. And again, it's not something that's cost effective for people to be able to pay out of pocket, and we're not prepared for that financially. But we put a high burden on family caregivers to do this type of work when we really need to be thinking about different types of strategies that would be more supportive. So one of the things that we're doing within AARP is bringing together all kinds of organizations that are providing pieces of that support and ensuring that we're collaborating effectively, efficiently for the very best for our family caregivers.
RUSH: We are obviously having this battle in Washington, D.C. The government shut down of course, but also cuts and services as well just from this administration. Are we prepared to pay for the kind of care that people need?
ADAMS: There are programs at the federal level that support family caregivers. Again, are they enough? No, but it is at least a demonstration that we are thinking about this. We need to do more. And I think that there have been some times when we are much more embracive of that. I've spent a bulk of my career advocating for this population, and I will certainly do everything that I can through my volunteer work at AARP to advocate for those types of funding mechanisms.
RUSH: Dorinda Adams, AARP Maryland Volunteer who tracks legislation, is attending today's national family caregiver appreciation event at the Mac Center in Salisbury. This is Don Rush for Delmarva Public Media.
