As a rising solution to the aging crisis in America, caregivers for seniors are increasingly becoming more senior, writes the Detroit Free Press in an article this week.
Citing the example of a 92-year-old Alzheimer’s patient who has a 74-year-old caregiver, the article points to the aging population as cause for this oncoming phenomenon of seniors caring for other seniors.
“As demand for senior services provided by nurses’ aides, homehealth aides and other such workers grows with the aging of baby boomers, so does those professions’ employment of other seniors. The new face of America’s network of caregivers is increasingly wrinkled,” the Detroit Free Press writes.
Citing statistics on the aging population provided by the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute (PHI), the article points to some segments of the workforce where those who are 55 and older actually comprise the bulk of the profession.
“I think people are surprised that this workforce is as old as it is,” Abby Marquand, a researcher at PHI, told the publication. “There’s often people who have chronic disease themselves who have to muster up the energy to perform these really physically taxing caregiving needs.”
Read the Detroit Free Press article.
Written by Elizabeth Ecker
