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1 Million
U.S. Children Are Caregivers
Janet Kornblum, USA TODAY, September 14, 2005
For more articles like this
visit
http://www.bridges4kids.org.
More than 1
million children in the USA take care of sick or disabled
relatives, shopping, feeding, dressing, medicating and even
changing adult diapers, a government-financed study finds. It is
the first to document what advocacy groups call a hidden
national problem.
The 1.3 million to 1.4 million child caregivers, ages 8 to 18,
have responsibilities more suited to adults, the national survey
says. It will be presented at a conference Friday by the
National Alliance for Caregiving and the United Hospital Fund,
with financing from the U.S. Administration on Aging. (Related
story: When child cares for parent)
"This is a failing of our health-care system," says Gail Gibson
Hunt, president of the alliance, a non-profit coalition of
family groups.
It estimates that 44.4 million adults in the USA provide unpaid
care for another adult. But child caregivers largely have
remained hidden and often stay silent because they fear being
separated from parents.
"We know that children have always played a role in assisting
their families, especially in minority communities where they
frequently act as interpreters and care for their siblings,"
says Josefina Carbonell, Assistant Secretary for Aging in the
Department of Health and Human Services. "Yet this report
reveals that a significant percentage of these children are
providing much more personal and complex tasks."
Most care for parents and grandparents who have ailments such as
Alzheimer's disease and cancer. At least 75% get some help, but
half say they spend a substantial amount of time caregiving. And
even those who are not the primary caregiver perform many tasks
by themselves.
"Sometimes lower- to mid-income families really fall through the
cracks," says Nancy Law of the National Multiple Sclerosis
Society, which assists young caregivers.
According to the study, 58% of child caregivers help with at
least one routine daily activity, such as bathing, dressing,
getting in and out of beds and chairs, eating, and using the
toilet or changing adult diapers. Nearly all help with shopping,
household tasks and meal preparation, the report says.
"This is a problem we have not even recognized, much less
started to address," says Hunt, who will present the findings at
the conference on Friday. "These kids are vulnerable."
The report was based on two surveys by Mathew Greenwald &
Associates. The first was a random phone survey of 2,000 U.S.
households in September 2003 to determine the prevalence of
child caregiving. The margin of error was 1 to 2 percentage
points. A second survey did phone interviews with 213 child
caregivers and 250 non-caregiving children. The margin of error
was 6 and 7 percentage points, respectively. Results were
similar to studies done on caregivers in the United Kingdom.
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