Elder-Care Becomes a Major Factor in the American Lifestyle

In addition to the retrained older workers who will remain in the workforce, there will also be growing numbers of even older people, in their 80s and 90s, who will no longer be able to work or even care for themselves.

This puts many people in the so-called "sandwich generation" ? that is, in the position of caring for elderly parents while also raising their own children. More than 14 million U.S. workers were taking care of older relatives in a 1997 study. At the time, the cost of these workers lost productivity was estimated at $29 billion a year. Since then, the situation has become even more widespread.

The U.S. Census reports that about 5.4 million children, or 7.7 percent of all children in the United States, were living in homes with a grandparent in 1997. In three-fourths of those cases, the grandparents maintain the household. But in the other 25 percent of the cases, the parents maintain the homes in which both their own parents and their children live together.

In the households in which grandparents are taken care of by their own children, half the grandmothers and 56 percent of the grandfathers are 65 or older. And only about 27 percent of the grandparents were reported to be in "excellent" or "very good" health.

According to a study released in April 2004 by AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving, a nonprofit coalition of groups that deal with aging, there are 44.4 million adults who provide unpaid care for another adult, according to a report in Newsday.

And while they are increasingly caring for their elderly parents, Baby Boomers are discovering that they will have no one to take care of them when they are older. Because of increased lifespans and a drop in the number of children theyve raised compared to previous generations, many Boomers will become what some experts are calling "elder orphans," or people who will have no one to care for them when they grow old.

Newsday quotes gerontologist Ellen Eichelbaum, who says, "This has no precedent. Nobody is dealing with it. Nobody wants to hear whats going to happen when their independence goes away." Eichelbaum said that most Boomers never told their children they would need to be taken care of someday, and arent about to start now. She said that she is frequently told, "Theres no way my kids are going to take care of me."

First, the birth rate has fallen. Because Boomer parents average 2.1 children compared to the 2.6 children per family of their own generation, there are fewer children to care for parents.

Second, more women are working than ever before in history. This means that there are fewer caregivers in the home.

Third, Boomers are having their children later in life. At the time when they will need their children to care for them, those sons and daughters will be busy working and raising their own children.

Fourth, the Boomers are the largest generation in history, and they are living longer than previous generations. The number of people over the age of 65 will double by 2030, to 70 million.

Fifth, because of divorce, many families consist of stepparents and stepchildren. Studies have found that stepchildren, and even biological children in blended families, are less likely to care for the parents who raised them.

Sixth, the members of families are increasingly mobile. Instead of living in the same neighborhood as their elderly parents, people often move hundreds or thousands of miles away from their hometowns.

Many experts have found that Baby Boomers aren’t prepared for a future in which they can’t care for themselves, and have no one to care for them. And nursing homes are not an option.

“Mention a future nursing home to a Baby Boomer and they’d rather kill themselves at the front door,” Eichelbaum said.

So what are the options? For today’s Boomers who are seeking alternatives to nursing homes ? either for their elderly parents today, or for themselves in the future ? we foresee four intriguing scenarios:

First, the demand for in-home caregivers will rise, and will give seniors a measure of independence in their own homes. The 2000 Census found that 29.4 percent of Americans over the age of 65 live alone. For those whose children are too busy or too far away to take care of them, professional caregivers are an expensive, but effective solution. The fee for in-home caregivers, who make sure the client takes prescribed medicines, eats adequate meals, and has company, is about $24 an hour. The cost of a geriatric care manager to oversee that care is as high as $150 per hour, according to the Orange County Register.3 The manager hires the in-home staff, takes the client to doctor visits, and keeps the client’s children updated about his or her health.

Second, robotics will provide another way to provide inhome care for the elderly. In a article, robot pioneer Joe Engelberger, founder of Unimation, talks about his latest project, an elder-care robot. The robot Engelberger has in mind will rent for about $600 per month, or about $1 per hour. There’s an enormous need ? and potential ? in this market. In Japan and the West, many tens of millions of elderly will need some form of assistance in the next few decades. Most can’t afford home care now, so they end up in nursing homes. Engelberger explains, “The robot I’m working on will be twoarmed, mobile, sensate, and articulate. It doesn’t need to communicate a great deal to meet the needs of an 85-year-old. A human can ask, ‘What’s for lunch?’ and the robot can respond with what it’s able to make. The voice-recognition, behavioral systems, and artificial intelligence necessary to do this are ready. Most of the other technologies are, too. We don’t need more navigation development ? getting around an apartment is easier than moving through a hospital or on Mars, which robots now do. I could prove this functionality with the right partner for about $700,000 in 14 months or less.”

Third, digital technologies will allow more elderly people to stay connected to help while living in their own homes. These include existing technologies such as the Internet and home security systems, as well as new technologies. For example, the Associated Press5 reports that Intel has been working on a network of wireless sensors and digital devices that will determine whether seniors are moving around their homes and alert them to take their medications on time. General Electric’s approach calls for using wireless motion detectors to transmit data about the senior’s activities to a central server at GE, where the client’s children can check up on whether they’ve gotten out of bed by logging on to the server over the Internet. Since the system does not include video or audio, the client’s privacy is protected. As one elderly client of a prototype of GE’s service told the AP, “This technology allows me to live independently in my home, which I value tremendously. I also appreciate the opportunity to age with dignity.”

Fourth, “virtual retirement communities” will allow seniors to stay in their homes while gaining the advantages of a real-world retirement community. According to the Boston Globe,6 about 200 people in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston decided they didn’t want to move to a retirement home. Instead, they banded together to get group discounts and services delivered to their own homes. For $500 per year, the members get in-home health services, access to a concierge service that takes care of errands, invitations to cultural events, and group rates on longterm care insurance. Similar communities may soon be started in New York, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas.

The problem arises out of six related trends:

References List :
1. Chicago Tribune, October 28, 2003, "Elder Care Quietly Saps Worker Output," by Carol Kleiman. ⓒ Copyright 2003 by the Tribune Company. All rights reserved. 2. To access the survey "Caregiving in the U.S.," please visit the AARP website at:www.research.AARP.org/il/us_caregiving.pdf 3. The Orange County Register, February 25, 2004, "Geriatric-Care Managers Help the Elderly, Families Make Decisions," by Jane Glenn Haas. ⓒ Copyright by Orange County Register. All rights reserved. 4. Business Week, December 1, 2003, "How Robots Lost Their Way." ⓒ Copyright 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 5. Associated Press, September 14, 2003, "Tech Elder Care," by Matthew Fordahl. ⓒ Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 6. Boston Globe, August 16, 2003, "A Self-Help Way to Assisted Living," by Alice Dembner. ⓒ Copyright 2003 by Globe Newspaper Co. All rights reserved.