TAKING CARE OF SOMEONE
CAN MAKE YOU FEEL
LIKE A BILLION DOLLARS
Journal of Healing – Nov. 19, 2003

By Mary Koch

If I told you a $257 billion industry is lobbying Congress hard this month, your reaction might be that any outfit that big has a pretty good chance of getting what it wants.

Don’t bet on it. The industry, if we can call it that, is family caregiving. An advocacy group, the Family Caregiver Alliance, is reminding Congress – and all of us – that November is National Caregivers Month.

In this country, where the bottom line is king and good things are appreciated primarily for their cash value, caregivers – if paid for their services – would cost the economy $257 billion annually.

There’s more. Because caregivers frequently need to take time off from work or quit their jobs, the nation is losing $11.4 billion annually in productivity. (Editorial aside: I can think of no vocation more productive than caregiving, but let’s get back to the stuff that really matters – dollars and cents.)

The financial sacrifice individuals make to take care of family members is considerable. The FCA says a caregiver loses about $659,139 over a lifetime. That includes $25,494 in Social Security benefits, $67,202 in pension benefits and $566,433 in lost wages.

* * *

THERE ARE plenty of statistics that measure some of the more personal costs of caregiving: depression, anxiety, and conflict, for example. Middle-aged and older women who care for an ill or disabled spouse are almost six times as likely to suffer depressive or anxious symptoms than non-caregivers.

Remember, she’s not only dealing with her husband’s illness and financial issues. She’s got our out-of-kilter medical system to contend with.

That mature wife caring for her aging spouse is the typical image of a caregiver. Women are more likely to take on caregiving duties than men, but it’s by no means our exclusive realm.

"Caregivers span every age, gender, culture, religion and ethnicity," observes the FCA in a news release.

The span also extends beyond family ties to friends, associates and neighbors. I recently received an e-mail from a young woman concerned for a suddenly disabled co-worker. "How did you learn to become a caregiver?" she asked. My short answer: From my mistakes. I’m still making them; I’m still learning.

* * *

THAT, SAYS THE FCA, is why services such as caregiver education, counseling and respite are crucial. Studies have shown that someone receiving support services while caring for an individual with moderate dementia can deter institutionalization of that loved one by nearly a year. Which brings us back to the bottom line: that’s about $56,000 saved in nursing home costs.

The FCA is lobbying Congress for better respite programs, tax credits for caregivers to compensate for lost wages and expenses; Social Security credits to make up for lost time in the workforce, and expansion of the Family and Medical Leave Act for employees who need to take time off.

The FCA says nearly one out of every four households is involved in caregiving for a person aged 50 or over. That’s one of the most heartening statistics I’ve heard about this nation in a long time. We hear a lot of laments about the loss of "family values." What could be more valuable than caring for each other, even at a financial sacrifice?

Some years ago my husband spelled out a message that I taped over the kitchen sink until the ink faded. Then I inscribed it on my heart. "I love your hands for all the things the do," he said. That, for any caregiver, is the real bottom line.

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