DEMOGRAPHY OF CAREGIVING

There is a great deal of talk about an impending crisis in meeting the health care needs of the growing elderly population, and such talk is based on demographic arguments that educators must understand if they are to participate in the dialogue. This article provides the necessary demographic background. First, the long-term care population (the minority among the elderly whose disabilities place them in need of attention from formal and informal caregivers) and the informal caregiving population are profiled. The sociodemographic and economic trends that suggest an impending crisis in health care delivery are then described. We concluded that government policy, in attempting to contain the cost of formal care without providing the resources for informal caregivers to take up the slack, has worsened the situation. The reason for the bad policy work, we argue, is an institutional point of view that asserts that problems can best be solved scientifically in organized ways using trained personnel. Most problems are actually solved by individuals and their family members and friends in noninstitutional and informal ways.