Families Caring for an Aging America

Richard Schulz; Jill Eden; Committee on Family Caregiving for Older Adults; Board on Health Care Services; Health and Medicine Division; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

doi:10.17226/23606

Families Caring for an Aging America

Contributors

Editors: Richard Schulz and Jill Eden. Authors: Committee on Family Caregiving for Older Adults; Board on Health Care Services; Health and Medicine Division; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2016 Nov 8.

ISBN-13: 978-0-309-44806-2ISBN-10: 0-309-44806-9

Hardcopy Version at National Academies Press

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Family caregiving affects millions of Americans every day, in all walks of life. At least 17.7 million individuals in the United States are caregivers of an older adult with a health or functional limitation. The nation's family caregivers provide the lion's share of long-term care for our older adult population. They are also central to older adults' access to and receipt of health care and community-based social services. Yet the need to recognize and support caregivers is among the least appreciated challenges facing the aging U.S. population.

Families Caring for an Aging America examines the prevalence and nature of family caregiving of older adults and the available evidence on the effectiveness of programs, supports, and other interventions designed to support family caregivers. This report also assesses and recommends policies to address the needs of family caregivers and to minimize the barriers that they encounter in trying to meet the needs of older adults.

This activity was supported by Grant No. 14-02-39 from Archstone Foundation, Grant No. 18203 from California Health Care Foundation, Grant No. 20130622 from The Commonwealth Fund, Grant No. 940 from Health Foundation of Western and Central New York, Grant No. 2014-0094 from The John A. Hartford Foundation, Grant No. 2013-247 from The Retirement Research Foundation, Contract No. VA101-14-C-0014 from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and grants from Alliance for Aging Research, Alzheimer's Association, an anonymous donor, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, May and Stanley Smith Charitable Trust, The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation, Santa Barbara Foundation, and Tufts Health Plan Foundation. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of any organization or agency that provided support for the project.

Suggested citation:

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Families caring for an aging America. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23606.

Bookshelf ID: NBK396401PMID: 27905704DOI: 10.17226/23606