Your World ;
; 61.6 million Americans care for older relatives or friends.
; Caregiving costs companies $33.6 billion a year.
; Are you afraid to tell your boss you’re a caregiver?
TheCaregiver’s
Dilemma
Eventhough Roxanne Aune’s boss is aware that her 59-year-old husband has
early onset Alzheimer’s, he’ll never
know how much it impacts her work.
“I feel I can’t say I’m a caregiver because a red flag will go up and my
boss will think, ‘Oh, there’s something
wrong with her husband again,’ ” says
Aune, 57, of Minneapolis. “I can’t afford to be absent, or start over again,
so I don’t discuss this part of my life.”
Aune, an auditor at a health insurance company, believes she has suffered professionally since her husband’s diagnosis last year. “I feel I get
overlooked for projects,” she says.
For many employees, Aune’s dilemma about work vs. elder care is becoming business as usual. The angst will
only grow, for many reasons: Parents
are living longer. Employees are working longer. More women have paid
jobs, and more
men are pitching in with care-giving. Smaller
families mean
fewer siblings to
help with Mom
By Sally Abrahms
Roxanne
Aune (left) has
had difficulties
at work since
her husband has
needed daily
assistance.
and Dad. Federal and state budgets are
slashing funds for caregiving. Families
are less interested in expensive institutional care, and hospital stays are
getting shorter.
The silver tsunami effect
Then there are the numbers: The
sheer magnitude of boomers and
others who will need help in the future guarantees an elder care tsunami. According to a June 2011 report
by MetLife Mature Market Institute,
the percentage of age 50-plus adult
children taking care of parents has
tripled since 1994. The Families
and Work Institute reports that
42 percent of U.S. workers in the last
five years have had elder care responsibilities and 49 percent expect
to care for an older family member
or friend in the next five years. And
a newly released AARP study reveals
that at any given time in 2009, 42.1
million U.S. family caregivers were
caring for an adult with limitations,
with 61.6 million providing care at
some time during the year. The estimated value of their unpaid contributions was nearly $450 billion
