Capacity To Meet Long Term Care Cost Hindered By Grandkids
Long Term Care Issue...Grandkids
The National Clearinghouse for Long-Term Care states that Long-Term Care is a variety of services and supports to meet health or personal care needs over an extended period of time. Most long-term care is non-skilled personal care assistance, such as help performing everyday Activities of Daily Living (ADLs), which are:
- Bathing
- Dressing
- Using the toilet
- Transferring (to or from bed or chair),
- Caring for incontinence, and
- Eating
The goal of long-term care services is to help you maximize your independence and functioning at a time when you are unable to be fully independent. This year, about 9 million Americans over the age of 65 will need long-term care services. By 2020, that number will increase to 12 million.
Grandparents charged with caring for grandkids may short circuit their capacity to meet Long Term Care costs. The problems associated with living long in America may be worsen by parents taken on the care of their children’s children.
The traditional family structure is being disrupted in many countries as well as America. Factors include:
- Death of single parent due to military services
- the effects of HIV/AIDS
- Drug Use related issues such as incarceration and urbanization
- Second and Third Marriages that ended in divorces
The above factors and other have led to grandparents becoming the primary caregivers for grandchildren. While many grandparents derive great satisfaction from creating and sustaining a meaningful long-term relationship with their grandchildren, this bond often comes with a hefty price tag that translates into significant economic, social and legal insecurity for all family members. The AARP “Divided We Fail” initiative report stated that in 2008, there were 4.5 million children in U.S. households headed by grandparents, and an additional 1.5 million in households headed by other relatives.
Grandparents serving as primary caregivers are more common among blacks and Hispanics than among whites, but the sharpest rise since the big recession in 2008 began has been among whites.. Aside from the growing minority of grandparents who have primary responsibility for their grandchildren…many grandparents help out at least occasionally with childcare. According to a 2009 Pew Research survey, among those ages 65 and older who have grandchildren:
- 39% say they have helped their adult children with childcare in the past 12 months.
- 50% of grandparents are more likely to have given their adult children money over the past year
About 70 percent of individuals over age 65 will require at least some type of long-term care services during their lifetime. Over 40 percent will need care in a nursing home for some period of time. Again…Grandparents caring for grandkids may short circuit their ability to meet their anticipated and unanticipated long term care cost. Caring for a grandchild with a disability can further compound the financial, psychosocial and health related difficulties experienced by grandparents.
Financial Services Professionals serving individuals over the age of 50 must not only help clients plan for “Sandwiched Periods” in their lifetime...they must also help those who children have left their children at their doorsteps as well. By the way. “Sandwich Generation” refers to families with a parent or parents who are raising their own children in addition to aiding their aging parents.
Financial Services Professionals must be prepare to help guide Grandparents thru tough times while caring for grandkids. Start discussions early. Do not wait until it is too late. Include other family members that could help. The discussions goes beyond the discussion of Long term Insurance. It encompasses a discussion around emotional and financial health of the GAP or GRG? (grandparents as parents (GAPs) and grandparents raising grandchildren (GRGs). This involves partnering with other professionals to help maintain or improve the lifetstyle of grandparents as well as preserve wealth that can be passed to the next generation.
Resources and References
- State by State Kinship Care Fact Sheets: -- A Resource for Grandparents and Other Relatives Raising Children--Provided by AARP at http://www.aarp.org/relationships/grandparenting/
- National Center on Grandparents Raising Grandchildren at http://chhs.gsu.edu/nationalcenter/
- Pew Research Center calculations of Decennial Census and American Community Survey Data
- Pew Social & Demographic Trends Project, “Growing Old in America: Expectations vs. Reality,” June 29, 2009
- Who Is Raising the World's Children? Grandparent Caregivers: Economic, Social and Legal Implications Publish Date: April 4, 2008 AARP's International Program and AARP Foundation and the Council of Women World Leaders
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Jim Robinson posted on Saturday, October 30, 2010
Tags: Long Term Care, LTC, Aging Parents, Grandparents, Grand Parents
Posted in: Site News, Health
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