Compendium of Intervention and Descriptive Studies Designed to Promote the Health of Caregivers for Older Adults

摘要

Caregivers are a critical resource for older persons with disabilities and chronic illnesses. Almost all older persons with some type of activity of daily living (ADL) or instrumental activity of daily living (IADL) impairment who live in community settings (about 95 percent) receive at least some assistance from relatives, friends, and neighbors. Two of every three older persons with some type of ADL or IADL impairment who live in noninstitutionalized settings (67 percent) rely solely on informal help, primarily from wives or adult daughters. Families have been, and continue to be, both the major coordinators and the providers of everyday long term care. A number of factors are shifting the cost and responsibility for post-acute and long-term care (LTC) for older persons to the informal care system. They include (1) changes in the health care delivery financing system that have led to shorter hospital stays, (2) the high cost of nursing home care, (3) a preference for home care over institutional care, and (4) the increasing shortage of paraprofessional workers in all LTC settings.