A new analysis of research conducted by AARP New York finds family caregivers in the Mid-Hudson Valley are stressed and believe the state should do more to help older adults remain in their homes.
A survey of voters over the age of 40 in Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster and Westchester counties finds family members shoulder a great deal of the burden for keeping elderly family members at home —minus the support they say they need from the state. AARP New York State Director Beth Finkel shares a key finding:
"70% of caregivers feel stressed. These are the people who are looking out for, you know, their mom or their dad, keeping them at home where people want to age in place and their own homes and communities that they built, and in order for them to do that, they need a little bit of help. And family caregivers, for the most part, are the ones who are providing that help. And it is a very stressful, high anxiety position to be in and so they are feeling emotionally drained. They're feeling physically drained, and then financially it is a terrible burden. The average caregiver in New York is spending over $8,000 a year out of their own pocket to keep their loved one in their own home," said Finkel.
Finkel notes that to keep someone in your home, or in their own home, with services from the state is $10,000 or less a year. If that individual enters a nursing home, it's $150,000 a year, with Medicaid being the chief payer for nursing home beds.
Finkel adds nearly four in 10 family caregivers who responded to the survey for the report say they care for or have cared for a relative, and 66% of those caregivers are women. One in three caregivers say they care or cared for someone with a decline in mental functioning, such as Alzheimer's or dementia.
Elana Fine, a social worker in Westchester County, spent a decade as her late mother’s main caregiver. Fine's mother suffered with heart and lung problems. "When people are ill, old friends and other people tend to turn away," Fine said. "They have their own issues, especially if they're the same age. And so the person you're caring for becomes more isolated, and you, in your own way also become more isolated. So they find their world narrowing because [of] their illness and your world is narrowing because you're needing to take care of them in such a regular way that it becomes central to your own life. Your own things are deferred for time being."
Fine urges anyone needing help caring for an older person to seek out and accept assistance in whatever form is available.
AARP Researcher Terri Guengerich managed the report. She says as a result of COVID, many caregivers pulled their care recipients from nursing homes, adding that most people would rather remain in their own home or in a family member's home.
"Overall, the quality of care of nursing homes has been under scrutiny for a while. It's just not a place people want to go and be. It's sort of like the last resort. We did ask a question in the survey of where people would want to receive care if they needed it. You know, God forbid something happened to them and they needed something, and nursing home is always the lowest," said Guengerich.
The statewide AARP caregiving survey of 1,345 New York registered voters age 40-plus found that 52% do not believe state government provides enough support for family caregivers, while 90% are concerned about the quality of care they would receive in a nursing home and whether the facility would have enough staff to provide care.
