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Elder Care News
More Children, Teenagers
Becoming Caregivers to Ill, Elderly Relatives
Aug. 27, 2007 - A growing number of children and
teenagers are taking on the responsibility of caring for family members
with debilitating illness, the
Washington Post reports. As many as 1.4 million young
people ages eight to 18 in the U.S. care for a chronically ill or
disabled relative, according to a 2005 survey by the
United Hospital
Fund and the
National Alliance
for Caregiving.
Tasks performed by young caregivers can include
providing companionship, running errands, balancing checkbooks and
changing feeding tubes or adult diapers.
The 2005 study found that mood
swings and antisocial behavior are more common among teenage caregivers
than their peers, and they also have increased rates of missing school
or after-school activities.
There are few public services to aid young
caregivers, who often do not receive recognition for their adult-level
responsibilities, the
Post
reports.
According to experts, these statistics will
continue to increase as U.S. residents are beginning families later in
life and advances in medicine are allowing people to live longer.
Connie Siskowski, a registered nurse in Boca Raton,
Fla., who started what is believed to be the nation's first program to
identify and assist young caregivers in public schools, said these
children often experience feelings of "stress, isolation and fear,
thinking they are the only ones."
She added, "When there is a serious illness,
there's also the fear of not only what's going to happen to that person
but what's going to happen to me" (Chandler,
Washington Post,
8/25).
>>
Read more at the
Washington Post
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