November Is National Family Caregivers Month

      The Alzheimer’s Association designates the month of November as National Family Caregivers Month. According to recent Connecticut statistics, in 2017, there were 178,000 dementia caregivers providing 203 million total hours of unpaid care at a total value of $2,563,000,000. This also created higher direct caregiver health costs of $154,000,000. Currently in Connecticut, there are an estimated 77,000 persons aged 65 or over with Alzheimer’s Disease. The estimates increase in 2020 to 80,000, and by 2025 to 91,000 persons.

           Nationwide, in 2017, more than 16 million family members and friends provided 18.4 billion hours of unpaid care to people with Alzheimer’s and other dementias, at an economic value of over $232 billion. Of the unpaid Alzheimer’s and dementia caregivers, 86 percent have provided care for the past year, and more than 50 percent have been providing care for four or more years. Nearly 25 percent of Alzheimer’s and dementia caregivers are “sandwich generation” caregivers--caring for both someone with the disease, and a child or grandchild.           

           Caring for an individual creates or aggravates the health problems of a caregiver. Nearly 60 percent of caregivers rate emotional stress of caregiving as high, and 40 percent report symptoms of depression. The physical and emotional impact of caregiving resulted in an estimated $11.4 billion in increased health costs in 2016.

           It also has a negative impact on caregiver employment, income, and financial security. More than 1 in 6 caregivers had to quit work entirely either to become a caregiver in the first place, or because their caregiving duties had become too burdensome. Among female caregivers, 17 percent believe they have been penalized at work because of the need to care for someone with Alzheimer’s.