Caregivers today are caught in the middle of taking care of their children and aging parents. The women of this 'Sandwich Generation' are doing most of the caregiving and they are experiencing tremendous stress.
Eighty percent of care to elders is provided by family and friends, according to The National Alliance for Caregiving. Another reason more people are feeling the crunch is that these days, women tend to wait longer to have children. So by the time they do, their parents are elderly. It's usually women who do the caregiving for both, says Kathryn Ringham, a caregiver coach at the Wilder Foundation in St. Paul, a health and human services organization that has an elderly care program. According to a recent survey by the National Association of Social Workers, most sandwich generation women don't seek help caring for their parents. Social workers can help make long-term care arrangements. They can find home health care that's affordable. They can provide counseling and support. Some women are ashamed that they can't do all of this themselves. Many women underestimate how long they'll be stuck in the middle of the sandwich. They figure it'll be a year or two, Ringham says. But it ends up being four years, or eight or more. "One of the strongest issues that's emerging is just the physical and emotional long-term consequences of being a caregiver," Ringham said. "Caregivers have a higher percentage of alcoholism, of use of psychotropic drugs and medications. They experience higher anxiety, higher stress."
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