Throughout this site, we focus heavily on the informal caregiving industry, and with good reason.
By this, we mean people who are acting as caregivers for family members.
People in this position often are not getting paid and frequently sacrifice their own time and income to ensure that their family members are cared for adequately.
Now, any type of caregiving can be challenging, especially when you are responsible for caring for someone in a full-time manner.
Yet, informal caregiving comes with its own additional challenges, especially as many caregivers are not prepared for the physical and the mental ramifications of long-term caregiving. For example, many informal caregivers do not adequately care for their own needs, which can mean that over time they burn out.
Additionally, informal caregivers are frequently undertrained and underprepared in other ways.
In some cases, they may have little to know idea about what to expect before getting involved in caregiving and may have no idea about where to go to learn the skills that they need. Often this means that caregivers end up figuring out what to do as they go along, largely through a process of trial and error.
This can be a significant issue, especially when caring for people with significant health problems, such as Alzheimer’s patients.
Online and in-person support groups can play a role in helping informal caregivers to learn more about their role and to find people to connect with. However, many caregivers struggle to even find the time to look into such supports.
Traditionally, informal caregivers have been overlooked and often are not covered by policy. There can also be relatively little support available, which can make the difficult role feel almost impossible.
But, thankfully, changes are occurring.
As the older population continues to increase within the United States, it is becoming increasingly clear that support for this population is needed. Paid caregiving is one form of support but informal caregivers are likely to play a critical role, especially for seniors who live in poverty.
Additionally, there is unlikely to be enough people in the paid workforce to adequately provide care where it is needed and researchers predict that there will be an increasing reliance on unpaid and informal caregiving.
As such, there has been a growing focus on informal caregiving and on ways of supporting and improving upon the processes that are currently in place.
For example, one research study (van Houtven, Voils & Meinberger, 2011) looked at the development of a framework for informal caregiving interventions. Their study focused on a range of interventions and looked for approaches that helped to promote positive outcomes overall.
They made key recommendations for future research, including the importance of using a common set of outcomes, so the conclusions of different studies could be compared to one another.
Likewise, Rose et al. (2014) focused on the way that policy changes are needed to provide support for caregivers. They argued that respite services are urgently needed to prevent caregivers from burning out.
Additionally, the authors noted that there needs to be a greater focus on educating caregivers to strengthen their ability to provide care.
There are also some programs in place that offer support to caregivers, such as the National Family Caregiver Support Program, which is a part of the Administration on Aging.
But, it’s clear that current programs and policies simply are not enough, especially as so many caregivers struggle in their roles and have very little support. This has been highlighted in discussions on modern policies, particularly as many of the current policies do not take into account the growth in informal caregivers.
More policies need to be developed that support caregivers and provide them with the training that they need. Likewise, services are needed that can offer other forms of support, including respite and types of formal care that can lower the workload for caregivers.
While there is no easy solution to any of these issues, it’s critical that considerations of caregiving policy remain at the forefront of local and national discussion.
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