ELDER CARE

Research Highlights

• Informal caregivers provide about 80% of all home care to seniors living in the community and up to 30% of services to seniors living in institutions.
• Caregiving can provide benefits not only for the receiver but also for those providing care.
• 26,260 residents of Guelph-Wellington provide more than one hour of unpaid care per week to seniors (2001)
• More women are involved in informal caregiving than men.
• There is a shrinking pool of informal caregivers relative to the increasing number of seniors.
• The two main challenges affecting caregivers in Guelph-Wellington are:
  • The need for more overnight (short stay) respite beds.
  • The need for more community support services.

Informal Caregivers
Informal caregivers include family members, friends and neighbours who provide practical assistance with daily activities and the personal care of seniors. They play a vital role in the health care system by providing emotional support and financial help, as well as mediating with professional organizations and service providers.

In Canada, an estimated 2.1 million people provide informal care to seniors with long-term health problems.¹ Informal caregivers provide about 80% of all home care to seniors living in the community and up to 30% of services to seniors living in institutions.²

The economic value provided by family caregivers is significant. Help given to seniors by informal caregivers is estimated to save the public system over $5 billion per year and is equivalent to the work of 276,509 full-time employees.³

Between 80-90% of caregivers feel that helping others strengthens their relationships with the care receiver, and repays some of what they themselves have received from others and from life.⁴

Makeup of Caregivers
According to the 2002 General Social Survey (GSS), “Aging and Social Support”:⁵

• Over 1.7 million Canadian adults aged 45 to 64 – 16% of this age group – are providing informal care to almost 2.3 million seniors with a long-term disability or physical limitation.
• Most middle-aged Canadians are looking after their own parents (67%) and their spouse’s parents (24%). Many (24%) are providing help to close friends and neighbours.
• On average, each caregiver is providing help to an average of 1.3 seniors.
• Although middle-aged caregivers are just as likely to be male as female, women dedicate almost twice as much time to their tasks – 29.6 hours per month, compared with 16.1 hours for men.
• Over one in 12 Canadian seniors (321,000) is looking after at least one of their contemporaries whose day-to-day activities are restricted by a long-term disability or physical limitation.
• Seniors are most often providing care to a spouse (25%), close friend (33%) or neighbour (19%).
• 70% of caregivers aged 45-64 and 6% of those aged 65 and over are employed.

According to the 2001 Census (Statistics Canada), 15% of the residents of Guelph-Wellington provided unpaid care to seniors. Close to 3,000 of them provided more than 10 hours of unpaid care to seniors per week. Like the national trend, the majority of caregivers are female (59%).

Declining Pool of Caregivers
In Canada, demographic pressures arise because the cohorts that follow the baby boomers are smaller. The baby boom generation will swell the caring generation between 2006 and 2016. As a result, the ratio between caregivers and persons 75 and over is favourable today. However, this trend will not continue to be so once the baby boomers themselves age and are dependent upon the baby bust generation for care.⁶

In addition to the aging population, out-migration by young people, especially those raised in rural areas, greatly impacts the pool of informal caregivers. One in 10 seniors aged 70 and older (who have children) have no children living within one-and-a-half hours of travel time.⁷ Many of these children moved away from their home community to seek employment and as a result, are not geographically available to offer the support required.

The Sandwich Generation
Today’s sandwich generation - those caught between the responsibilities of raising children and caring for seniors - is relatively small. It will, however, grow substantially as baby boomers age. In other words, the dependency ratio between the working population and the elderly will rise.

Impact on Caregivers
American data shows that the average length of caregiving is about eight years, with roughly one-third providing care for 10 years or more.⁸

Ultimately, the caregiving role can have a detrimental effect on the health of the caregiver.

• The stress of caregiving can lead to anxiety, guilt, fatigue, physical illness, restricted social contacts, and depression.⁹
• 29% of informal caregivers report that caregiving has altered their sleep patterns, and 21% state that their health has been affected.¹⁰
• Although most caregivers gain some positive benefits from their activities, approximately half report that caregiving has negatively affected their job performance (lateness, absenteeism) or caused them to incur additional expenses.¹¹
• Caregivers who experience the strain of caregiving have a 63% higher mortality rate.¹²
• Financial strain has been reported by 25% of Canadian informal caregivers due to the cost of supplies, medications, renovations and equipment.¹³

For caregivers who provide care to seniors suffering from dementia, the burden can be greater:¹⁴

• Among the one-third of employed caregivers who reported work disturbances due to caregiving, those who cared for people with dementia reported these disruptions twice as often.
• In the Canadian Study of Health and Aging's longitudinal analyses, caregivers of people who were newly diagnosed with dementia showed significant increases in depressive symptoms when the care recipients remained in the community, but not when they were admitted to an institution.

Community Supports & Services
Caregiver Relief (Respite) - Saugeen Valley Nursing Centre in Mount Forest has one short stay bed available. In Guelph, St. Joseph’s Health Centre has two short stay beds available; only one is Ministry-funded. And, LaPointe-Fisher Nursing Home has one short stay bed available. Access to a Ministry-funded respite bed is made through the CCAC. Retirement homes with bed vacancies will consider providing respite.

Compassionate Care Benefits
As of January 2004, compassionate care benefits are available through Employment Insurance (EI). Workers are able to receive up-to-six weeks of compassionate care benefits in order to look after a member of their family who is very ill. To be eligible, individuals need: 600 hours of insurable hours, and a medical certificate that the ill family member has a “significant risk of death within six months” and that she or he needs one or more family members to provide emotional support, arrange health care, or directly provide health care.

What are the Social Service Issues in Guelph-Wellington?

Limited Respite Care
Respite can be provided in three ways: in-home respite, adult day programs, and short-stay overnight respite. These services allow the primary caregiver(s) a necessary break from their caregiving responsibilities. At present, there are limited respite opportunities in Guelph-Wellington – one is located in Mount Forest and three are in Guelph.

Lack of Community Support Services
Community Support Services encompass a range of health and social services aimed at helping people who need assistance with daily living to live as independently as possible in the community.¹⁵

There is a lack of publicly-funded community support services in Guelph-Wellington. If seniors do not have family or friends to help, they must purchase the extra care the need. If they cannot afford to do so, they often go without help. Often it is the lack of supportive care that leads to premature and inappropriate institutionalization.

1. Health Canada. (2002, June 27). Federal/Provincial/Territorial Ministers responsible for Seniors continue to take a leading role in addressing a number of important issues affecting current and future seniors in Canada [News Release]. Toronto, Ontario: Health Canada.
2. National Advisory Council on Aging. (1999). 1999 and beyond: Challenges of an aging Canadian society. Ottawa, Ontario: Health Canada - Division of Aging and Seniors.
3. Lemieux-Charles, L. et al. (2002). Dementia care networks' study. Toronto, Ontario: Canadian Health Services Research Foundation.
4. Stobert, S. & Cranswick, K. (2004). Looking after seniors: who does what for whom? Canadian Social Trends, No. 74. Statistics Canada: Catalogue No. 11-008.
5. Ibid
6. Brink, S. (2000, May 11-12). A sustainable model of Elder Care for Canada – Learning from International Experience. Paper presented at 11th Annual John K. Friesen Conference, Gerontology Research Centre, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada.
7. Rosenthal, C. (1987). Aging and intergenerational relations in Canada. In V. Marshall (ed.), Aging in Canada: Social Perspectives (pp. 311-342). Markham, Ontario: Fitzhenry and Whiteside.
8. Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (1999). The MetLife Juggling Act Study: Balancing Caregiving Work and the Costs Involved. Westport, CT: Mature Market Institute, MetLife.
9. MacCourt, P., Tuokko, H., & Tierney, M. (2002). Canadian Association on Gerontology Policy Statement on Issues in the Delivery of Mental Health Services to Older Adults. Canadian Journal of Aging, 21(2).
10. National Advisory Council on Aging. (1999). 1999 and beyond: Challenges of an aging Canadian society. Ottawa, Ontario: Health Canada - Division of Aging and Seniors.
11. Ibid
12. Schulz, R., & Beach, S.R. (1999). Caregiving as a risk factor for mortality: The caregiver health effects study. Journal of the American Medical Association, 282(23), 2215-2219.
13. MacAdam, M., (2000). Home care: It's time for a Canadian model. Healthcare Papers, 1(4): 9-36.
14. Lemieux-Charles, L. et al. (2002). Dementia care networks' study. Toronto, Ontario: Canadian Health Services Research Foundation.
15. Teplitsky, F. et al. (2006). In Focus… Community Support Services. Toronto, Ontario: Canadian Research Network for Care in the Community.