This is a question I think about from time to time. I have one married daughter. Her mother-in-law (mom of three) and I are both divorced, so we will be aging alone in our homes. Our siblings do not live in our state. Health care and financial support are already issues for both of us. When I read the following article I couldn’t help but think of those of us who are solo seniors…
As Baby Boomers Move Into Old Age, Who Will Care For Us?
by Jody Gastfriend, Forbes.com
August 10, 2018
“My high school buddies and I recently got together and reminisced about old times. “Can you believe we’re 60?” we howled. “That used to seem really old!” Many of us are still caring for parents who have crossed the 90-year-old threshold. As we joked about our aging bodies—the creaky knees and achy joints—we mused about another topic too. Who will care for us as we grow old? Will our adult children with their busy lives assume the role of caregiver? And will the childless among us rely on nieces, nephews, friends or neighbors to step in?
When it comes to the growing demand for caregiving, the numbers just don’t add up. The United States, like many industrialized countries, is looking down the barrel of a looming care gap. As my fellow Baby Boomers move headlong into old age — we are now retiring at a rate of about 10,000 per day — there may not be enough caregivers to go around. The potential pool of family caregivers, whose stories I tell in my book, My Parent’s Keeper, will not sustain the growing demand for care. An estimated 117 million Americans will need assistance of some kind by 2020, yet the number of unpaid caregivers is expected to reach only 45 million. The caregiver support ratio, the number of potential family caregivers relative to the number of older Americans, is projected to decline sharply by mid-century.
Where have all the caregivers gone?” Read more