Threat of Fewer Caregivers by 2026 – Broward Boca Home Care, Your Solution to In Home Care

Colleges that provide nursing degrees have long been advertising the shortage of nurses in the healthcare industry. This is a very real shortage and it will continue to be. Sadly, there may be another more desperate crisis looming in the form of a shortage of caregivers, both paid and unpaid.

Currently, there are many caregivers supporting their family members during short or long term illnesses and they assume that they will receive the same courtesy. Statistics suggest that they may well be disappointed.

According to a report put out by the Policy Institute of the AARP, the American Association of Retired Persons, the caregiver profession population is declining and will continue to decline. Many baby boomers are currently working and caring for an older parent or family member. The current common age is around 60 years old for these caregivers. The AARP states that the caregiver support ratio, which is the ratio of potential caregivers to persons needing long-term care, was seven potential caregivers to each person needing care in the year 2010. The persons needing care were in the 80 years old and above range.

As baby boomers age, the ratio declines and the projected healthcare situation worsens. The ratio is projected to be just four potential caregivers to one person in need by the year 2030. This is because the number of senior citizens over age 80 will increase by an overwhelming 79% from the year 2010 to the year 2030 according to AARP’s projections. With the number of those needing care soaring and the numbers of potential caregivers plummeting, what are we to do?

The Associated Press states that most people at and over the age of 40 years old are in denial about their future healthcare needs. Based on the fact that they are currently taking care of the older, high-risk generation, this indicates that they are not paying attention. Many people over the age of 80 years old have some kind of disability as well as other co-morbidities. To someone who sees themselves as young and healthy, those statistics may seem far away, but we would do well to plan ahead.

The large number of aging population is not the only reason for the sharp decline in caregiver ratio. The AARP points out that fertility patterns for those who reached age 80 between the years 1990 and 2010 were higher than they will be for those reaching 80 in the next twenty years. This means that fewer children were born to the next generation of senior citizens, which will lead to there being fewer caregivers available for those seniors.

Americans would do well to focus on more efficient public spending policies in order to use our healthcare giver resources wisely in the next twenty years and forward. Home health care companies like Boca Home Health Care will likely play a large role in this area, as it is cheaper and healthier to care for the elderly in their own homes.

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