The pool of family members available to take on caregiving roles is getting smaller. The ratio of potential family caregivers to those 80 and older is expected to drop to 4 to 1 in 2030, down from 7 to 1 in 2010, according to AARP.
For an only child, the responsibility can mean dropping everything when a parent becomes sick.
China started realizing this problem many years ago.
ReplyDeleteEven a multiple sibling family can face this problem. I've seen many cases where one sibling lives near the parents and the others have moved far away and feel all the responsibility is on the one who stayed closed.
ReplyDelete