Who is Caring for Our Caregivers? We Are and Here’s How.

Over the course of your life, your parents most likely put food in your stomach, clothes on your back, and a roof over your head and eventually set you on a path for adulthood and independence. You may now be repeating that cycle for your own children as generations of people have been doing since the beginning. The last century, though, has seen an unprecedented disruption to that cycle with a rapidly growing number of Canadians now becoming unexpected members of the new ‘sandwich generation.’  Why is this?  Well for one thing we are all living longer than any one of us expected to even a century ago when our average life expectancy was still only 51 years of age. While there have always been folks who lived much longer than that, they tended to be those who avoided the misfortunes of life and poor health.

Medical advances now mean that we can live on average to 81 years of age, but more of us are doing so with multiple chronic conditions, functional challenges, and with poorer social supports at hand as we tend to outlive family and friends with each passing year and are less likely to be living in intergenerational households and communities as we become increasingly mobile as a society. The triumph of ageing has also become a challenge for us all, while for the first time in memory, the majority of people may now be spending more time caring for their parents than they do for their own children.

If you are reading this – this likely may be your story, as currently over eight million Canadians over the age of 15 are providing care to a loved one – a son, daughter, aunt, uncle, mother or father. When people care for a generation of loved ones above and below them, they are members of this new ‘sandwich generation.’ Currently, more than three million unpaid Canadian caregivers, or 40 per cent of all Canadian caregivers, provide care to an ageing parent. Of these caregivers, 30 per cent cite frailty or ageing as the reason they provide care to their parents while 7 per cent cite Alzheimer’s disease or another dementia as their primary reason. This latter group, caring for loved ones with dementia, is rapidly growing, as the incidence of dementia rapidly increases with each passing decade of life beyond our sixties. About 30 per cent of unpaid caregivers caring for their parents report five out of a possible nine psychological symptoms including those related to stress, depression and anxiety, and Canadians who act as caregivers to their parents are more regular users of health care services.

In short, being a caregiver is hard work.

It’s even more challenging when you consider that many caregivers in Canada also struggle to balance their professional and personal obligations. According to Carers Canada, 40 per cent of working caregivers miss days of work, 26 per cent take a leave of absence, 15 per cent reduce their work hours, 10 per cent turn down job opportunities, and six per cent quit their jobs. The stress of having to balance caregiving duties and professional responsibilities reduces levels of productivity because caregivers are more tired, need to take time off and more often leave work early, which is reflected by the fact that 46.8 per cent of caregivers’ incomes are between $20,000 and $39,999, and 38.5 per cent of caregivers forgo necessities to cover care-related expenses. Indeed, while caregiving may go unpaid, it does come at an enormous cost for many.