
According to a study by AARP, “nearly 40 million Americans in 2014 were providing unpaid care to people who are older, disabled, or otherwise in need of assistance.” Worse yet, “by 2020, 117 million Americans are expected to need assistance of some kind, yet the overall number of unpaid caregivers is only expected to reach 45 million.”
That’s about 2.6 people needing care for every unpaid caregiver available.
Anyone living with a severely limiting disability knows just how hard it is to do everyday tasks that others can take for granted. Assistance is a constant requirement for people with severe disabilities—and this can place a huge strain on caregivers.
After all, unpaid caregivers have their own lives to take care of. They have to not only provide assistance to others, but find time to hold down a job and take care of themselves so they can be there to provide assistance.
Taking care of one person is like taking on a full-time job—one where there is no such thing as a “day off.” As such, it’s almost impossible for the average unpaid caregiver to provide full-time assistance to more than one person at a time.
So, for all too many disabled workers, finding someone to help handle daily tasks is going to be difficult. Even if you consider the projection that there will be “5 million paid caregivers” by 2020 and add them to the pool of 45 million unpaid caregivers, that still leaves an enormous gap in the supply and demand for care.
While the large gap between the number of available caregivers and people needing care is worrisome, there are some potential solutions to the shortage and alternatives to full-time care
Potential alternatives to full-time care include:
These services, while useful, may not be a suitable replacement for dedicated care for those who have especially severe disabilities.
Another solution is to incentivize people to become full-time, paid caregivers. Ways to do this include:
These solutions aren’t perfect, but it’s important to take action now before the crisis becomes critical.
For those living with a disability and are in need of help, we here at Disability Experts of Florida hope that knowing a bit about the caregiving situation can help you prepare for the future.
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