Long-term outcomes:Health and Well-being of Caregivers in California
Caregiving can be rewarding, but also demanding and challenging. When caregivers receive appropriate training and assistance to be an integrated part of the care team, they are able to offer quality care to family members and manage the demands of their role, helping to maintain their quality of life and financial security.
About 4.3 million Californians provide informal care as friends and family members of adults 65 years of age or older with a disability or illness.
Just over one in ten caregivers suffer physical or mental health problems.
About four in ten experience financial stress because of caregiving.
Adults Experiencing a Caregiving-Related Physical or Mental Health Problem
About 473,000 caregivers in California — more than the population of Long Beach, California — suffer from a physical or mental health problem because of their caregiving activities.
From 2019 to 2020, the percentage of caregivers who reported physical or mental health problems in the past year because of their caregiving activities remained steady at about 12 percent.
However, some groups experienced physical or mental health problems more than others. Women were almost twice as likely as men to have a physical or mental health problem because of caregiving, for example. Caregivers who identified as White, more than one race, or non-Hispanic White were also more likely to experience phsycial or mental health problems.
Despite relative stability overall, the health of caregivers with lower incomes improved markedly from 2019 to 2020, with fewer reporting physical or mental health problems because of caregiving.
Accelerated Action:
If California maintains current trends, the expectation would be for about 12 percent of caregivers to experience a physical or mental health problem as a result of their caregiving duties in 2030. Accelerating action would realize a goal of 9.3 percent.
Adults Experiencing Caregiving-Related Financial Stress
Of the 4.3 million people providing care for older Californians, more than 40 percent — about 1.8 million — experience financial stress because of their caregiving duties.
In 2019 almost half of all caregivers of older adults felt at least some financial stress from their caregiving duties. In 2020, this percentage declined only slightly and remained high.
While most groups of caregivers experienced a decline in financial stress, Black or African American caregivers saw an increase. In 2020, almost two-thirds of caregivers who were Black or African American, American Indian, or Alaska Native experienced financial stress because of their caregiving duties.
Accelerated Action:
If California maintains current trends, the expectation would be for about 45 percent of caregivers to experience financial stress because of their caregiving duties in 2030. Accelerating action would realize a goal of 36 percent.
Call to Action!
Want to learn how you can help make a difference? Consider the following activities and ideas.
Funders
- Support programs or efforts to alleviate caregiving burdens, particularly for individuals at a higher risk of poor health and well-being because of their caregiving duties.
- Ensure caregiving resources are accessible, culturally competent, and reaching caregivers from underserved or marginalized communities.
- Fund survey questions specific to older adult caregiving, alongside survey designs that oversample diverse caregivers.
Policymakers
- Strengthen or expand policies that support caregivers, including paid family leave, to minimize the financial burden and employment limits experienced by some caregivers.
- Develop policy to expand and sustain a quality paid workforce of caregivers, reducing the burden on families.
- Ensure that state and local data collection captures caregiving burden and need and can be disaggregated by population characteristics, including but not limited to race, ethnicity, language, gender, income, and geography.
- Provide Social Security and Medicare work credits for unpaid caregivers in recognition of their contributions.
Advocates
- Increase awareness of challenges faced by caregivers and the need to invest in supporting their well-being.
- Voice support for policies that improve conditions for caregivers, including respite care and financial compensation for informal caregiving.
- Encourage caregivers to maintain or seek out services to support their own physical and mental health.
- Highlight the unique barriers faced by caregivers from different racial and socioeconomic backgrounds and identify ways to address such barriers.