Financial Struggles while Taking Care of the Elderly with Dementia (Research Paper Sample)

Financial Struggles While Taking Care of the Elderly
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Financial Struggles while Taking Care of the Elderly
Older populations, specifically those with functional limitations, rely on unpaid care, which working-age family members often provide. Providing familial caregiving helps reduce private and public spending on long-term support services. However, caregiving impacts a caregiver’s work and family finances, such as maintaining a job and caring for the family member. Feelings of financial strain are frequent among caregivers, especially when they have not planned or budgeted for the out-of-pocket expenses and employment-related costs. Those who are most likely to experience high financial strains are primary caregivers, caregivers who live at a distance from the older adult, and those with high caregiving demands. However, does care for older adults lead to the caregiver making adjustments and sacrifices? Having to balance caregiving with other family commitments causes more significant levels of burden to caregivers. If sacrifices have to be made to deliver services to older adults, the degree of stress increases inevitably due to sacrificing. Caregiving to older adults causes financial strain on the family caregiver because of the out-of-pocket expenses and lifestyle adjustments such as quitting work to take care of them.
Family members step up to take care of the expenses of living with their ailing parents by providing unpaid care. According to Sollitto, family members are often responsible for taking care of their elderly parents, but most of them are unprepared to cover the costs (2019). Caregivers have no financial plan for taking care of their parents for five years—working family members who provide care for their parents’ plan and save for their retirement. Still, they forget to plan for funds essential in taking care of their parents in old age—taking care of the parents impacts their ability to contribute to their savings and retirement plans. They are forced to use their savings to cover unexpected caregiving costs.
Providing uncompensated care to parents living with mental limitations is a cause for substantial financial strain for families dealing with dementia. Family caregivers have to make sacrifices on their lifestyles to address the financial burdens meted on them due to taking care of their ailing parents. Most family caregivers are employed full-time or part-time. Due to taking care of their family members, they have to adjust to accommodate their caregiving and work responsibilities (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2016). If an employee has used up all of their paid time off or does not qualify for any paid time off, each hour of work missed due to caregiving activities costs the employee money. Taking unpaid leave and reducing hours or accepting lower-paying jobs with less commitment is costly. Not only does the caregiver suffer an immediate loss of income, but his or her long-term economic status will suffer as a result of reduced retirement savings and benefits. Most people expect that they will work longer, but family caregiving can get in the way of continued employment. Working caregivers go into early retirement or quit their jobs because they have to spend more time with the family member they are taking care of, or their place of work does not offer flexible work