As an assisted living facility, Wellington Estates is all about providing care for adults in need.
What’s interesting, though, is that 15 percent of U.S. citizens are adult caregivers, according to an analysis of the Bureau Labor Statistics’ data done by the Pew Research Center. That’s roughly one out of every seven adults helping out an adult in need without taking any money for it.
What’s even more interesting is that the caregivers rated many of the activities as “very meaningful (47%)” and “very happy” (32%) in regard to doing them.
Caregiving comes in many forms, including helping with eating, dressing, bathing, transportation, and medical care among others.
Characteristics of Adult Caregivers
The data showed some interesting findings about adult caregivers.
First-of-all, the number of male and female caregivers are about equal and they provide the same amount of care.
These findings were basically the same regardless of race, ethnicity, income and education, though, on average, caregivers with family incomes under $30,000 spent 14 minutes more time caregiving than those earning $75,000 and above, and people with a high-school diploma and under spent 13 minutes more time giving care than their counterparts who held a bachelor’s degree or higher.
Age
Another interesting finding is age:
The percent of adult care activities that the caregivers found very meaningful rises with age. While adults between the ages of 18 – 29 find 29% of the activities to be meaningful, for 60-year-olds up to 74-year-olds the number is 59%. And for 75-year-olds and above, 82 percent of the adult caregiving activities are very meaningful.
Disability
Do disabled individuals make better caregivers? We don’t know, but we do know that they spend 17 minutes more a day providing care than non-disabled adult caregivers.
What have you notices about adult caregivers?
Please share in the comments below.