Caregiving in America: The Health Consequences on Boomer Women

Notwithstanding the contributions by several organizations and governmental agencies, most experts agree that more needs to be done to support boomer women and other family caregivers. The reliance on family caregivers in home settings has increased relative to formal care in recent years, and larger proportions of care
recipients have high levels of disability. Critical as the situation is, rationally there seems to be little sense of urgency or even awareness of the growing needs of caregivers—particularly of boomer women.

The economic value of family caregiving to American society is in the hundreds of billions of dollars annually, amounting to more than twice the amount spent on paid care—even without taking into account the wages and benefits that are sacrificed when people leave their jobs or reduce their hours in order to care for family
members. The value of care provided by families and friends was estimated to be $350 billion in 2006. The contribution of women accounts for the bulk of this amount—the contribution of women providing care is estimated to be between $207 billion and $263 billion.

This caregiving brief reviews the physical and emotional health consequences of providing care by boomer women. Boomers are quite different from previous generations of women in a number of respects, with the potential for significantly greater negative health outcomes. Financial and social consequences of caregiving
on boomer women are also discussed.

Read the entire Article, very insightful.