Latest news with #familycare
Forbes
5 days ago
- Health
- Forbes
Who Are Family Caregivers Of Seniors And People With Disabilities?
A daughter with her father. The typical family caregiver is a 50-something woman who spends 27 hours a week caring for an aging parent who has two or more serious medical conditions, and is doing so with little outside assistance, according to a new survey by the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP. While that describes a typical caregiver, many different family members serve as caregivers, and many kinds of people are being helped. For example, the survey, called Caregiving in the US, found that 4 million children under age 18 are helping to care for relatives with physical or cognitive limitations. The study is valuable because it is the fifth in a series going back to 1997. Strikingly, while it shows some important changes, the basic story remains the same: Millions of Americans are struggling to care for relatives who increasingly need help with their daily activities, from bathing to shopping. Counting Caregivers The new study estimates that in 2024, about 63 million people were caring for aging parents, spouses, or children with disabilities and serious illnesses. That's an increase of 16 million in the past decade. The survey counts anyone who has provided 'ongoing care over the past year to adults or children with complex medical conditions or disabilities.' It defines family caregiving 'as providing ongoing supports and management of complex care tasks for children and adults with chronic, disabling, or serious health conditions.' About 41 million of those being cared for are age 65 or older. Other research has come up with somewhat lower estimates. For example, Jennifer Wolff and colleagues at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, estimated 24 million family members were caring for older adults in 2022, up from 18 million a decade earlier. Similarly, in 2023 the Bureau of Labor statistics estimated 37 million family members were providing care for older adults. Why the differences? Different years. Surveys ask different questions. And all these studies are based on self-reporting by individuals, and family members may characterize their roles differently. Sometimes, for example, a daughter won't call herself a caregiver. She is just…a daughter. Caregivers, she may believe, are the people who are paid to assist others. Who Are They? Like other studies, the NAC/AARP survey found that while most family caregivers are women, about 40% are men, a ratio that has not changed much in recent years. More than half are adult children caring for parents or grandparents. About 15% care for spouses or partners. Forty percent of family caregivers live with those receiving care, a big increase from a decade ago when the share was only about 34%. Much is said about the 'sandwich generation' who care for both young children and aging parents. The new study finds about 30% of all family caregivers also have young children or grandchildren living with them. Not surprisingly, caregivers under age 50 are most likely to be caring for both young children and older adults. Nearly half of that group are sandwich generation caregivers. About two-thirds of working-age caregivers are employed and half of them say caregiving affects their ability to work, reporting they go in late, leave early, or take time off to provide care. What Do They Do? Only about one-third of family caregivers have paid help, most often they are people who work themselves and who have relatively high incomes. Those providing care for very long durations are most likely to hire aides to assist them, as are nearly half of those caring for loved ones with dementia. About one-third of family caregivers report assisting loved ones for five years or more. Three-quarters say they provide 20 hours or more of care a week and one-quarter report 40 hours or more, or the equivalent of a full-time job. More than half provide the kind of medical care that normally would be done by a nurse. But only about one-in-five say they have been trained to do these tasks. Most act as care navigators for their loved ones: 70% monitor their health conditions, two-thirds communicate with their doctors, and nearly 60% advocate for care recipients' needs with providers, community services, or government agencies. Regrettably, care coordination isn't getting easier, despite growing attention to the need. Only about 70 percent of those surveyed say they are included in care planning, with younger caregivers even less likely to be involved. About 58% say coordinating care with health professionals is easy, down from 65% in 2015, and from 59% in 2020. Similar to other surveys, respondents are looking most of all for financial support. Roughly 70% favor such assistance, though higher-income caregivers prefer tax credits while those with lower incomes favor direct payments. About one-in-four would like respite services, while one-in-three identify emotional support and professional assessment of their needs. A Worsening Problem The NAC/AARP report may vary from others in the details. But whatever the numbers, it is fair to say that a lot of Americans—tens of millions—are caring for their loved ones. They are making enormous financial, emotional, and physical sacrifices to do it. Their numbers are increasing rapidly as the population ages and more people of all ages with disabilities remain at home, and for longer. And they are getting remarkably little support from the health care system or the government. That's especially true of those who care for people who do not qualify for government programs such as Medicaid. The problem is bad and getting worse, no matter how you count it.
The Guardian
14-07-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Grandparents in the UK: share your experiences of helping with childcare
Whether you do the school run every morning or have your grandchildren to stay for the odd night so that their parents can paint the town red – or catch up on sleep – we want to hear from grandparents in the UK about the ways in which they look after their grandchildren. A recent article in The Atlantic posited that older Americans might be doing more grandparenting than ever – and might be reaching their limit. Yet there is also a reputation that 'boomers' are too busy playing golf, sipping cocktails and 'laughing while their millennial children are suffering' to put in any grunt work with their offspring's offspring. What is the situation like in the UK? We'd like to find out. If you look after your grandchildren for short stints or days at a time, we want to know what type of care you provide, how the arrangement came about, as well as how you feel about it – the benefits as well as any potential downsides. Does it keep you on your toes? Does it feel like a necessity in a country where childcare is often cripplingly expensive? Does it ever, be honest, as much as you love your grandchild, feel like a burden? You can share your experiences of helping with childcare as a grandparent using this form. Please include as much detail as possible. Please include as much detail as possible. Please note, the maximum file size is 5.7 MB. Your contact details are helpful so we can contact you for more information. They will only be seen by the Guardian. Your contact details are helpful so we can contact you for more information. They will only be seen by the Guardian. If you include other people's names please ask them first. If you're having trouble using the form click here. Read terms of service here and privacy policy here.
Medscape
19-06-2025
- Health
- Medscape
Get Help Managing Your Pediatric Patients' Mental Health
Simple tests or treatments aren't readily available for our patients with mental health problems. Although we are the ones who have known the patient and their family for years, that does not mean that we can see mental health disorders developing. We bear a huge responsibility, because, generally, earlier detection can lead to better long-term outcomes for mental health disorders. However, the typically brief pediatric visit does not lend itself to the deeper investigations that help us know what to do next. Barbara J. Howard, MD What can we do to get help figuring out what is going on when mental health issues are the concern? Our questions may be about the diagnosis, how to tell how serious it is, what work up is appropriate, what medication to use, how to handle side effects, or how to move the family or child toward more specialized care. Even when we or the family want a referral, getting one can take a long time and doesn't often include timely communication. What our patients need is coordinated, ongoing mental healthcare that connects our care with that of behavioral health specialists. You can always call a psychiatrist from the emergency department to discuss urgent cases. But for ongoing support, another possibility is to establish relationships with one or more psychiatrists in your community. You may start with a psychiatrist in your affiliated hospital or one in the community who has cared for a patient of yours already. You can ask if they might be willing to provide consultation on your management of other patients for a fee. This could be just for you or organized with a group of pediatricians. I arranged this kind of consultation early in my career with support from my department. But there are now other ways to obtain and even be paid for collaborations between pediatricians and psychiatrists. The Health Resources and Services Administration established the Pediatric Mental Health Care Access program. This initiative supports state-level Child Psychiatry Access Programs (CPAPs), which provide real-time teleconsultation, training, and care coordination to pediatric primary care providers. The National Network of Child Psychiatry Access Programs serves as a hub for these efforts, supporting existing and emerging CPAPs to integrate mental health and substance use disorder services with primary care. These programs' goals are to increase pediatric primary care clinicians' comfort and skill in managing mild to moderate mental health and substance use disorders, thereby augmenting the limited supply of child and adolescent psychiatrists. In Maryland, the Behavioral Health Integration in Pediatric Primary Care (BHIPP) program is one example of this model. BHIPP offers free services to providers and their patients, including in-person and web-based training opportunities with continuing medical education, workforce development through co-location of social work interns in primary care practices, web-based longitudinal learning through multiple Project ECHO tracks, direct telemental health services, and care coordination. BHIPP operates as a partnership among several universities, including the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and Johns Hopkins University, ensuring a multidisciplinary approach to pediatric mental healthcare. The services and models in other states vary, along with the numbers of participating medical centers. In most cases you can call a central number to be connected to a psychiatrist. More recently, standards have been established for more structured 'Collaborative Care Management' (CoCM) that formalizes coordinated care between the child, family, primary care provider, and mental health specialists. While we primary care clinicians remain the center of this care, a behavioral care manager (perhaps a social worker, nurse, or psychologist) helps monitor the patients' symptoms and progress, often using standardized tools, and a child and adolescent psychiatrist consults regularly with the care manager and with us, providing treatment guidance, sometimes without seeing the patient directly. This method of care has been proven effective in multiple trials, showing improvements in depression, anxiety, and behavioral outcomes. In January 2023, the American Medical Association and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services introduced new current procedural terminology (CPT) codes specific to collaborative care in pediatric primary care: 99492, 99493, and 99494. These codes pay for our time and effort in coordinating mental healthcare, reviewing behavioral data, consulting with psychiatric colleagues, and monitoring a child's progress over time. Code 99492 covers the first 70 min of collaborative care in the first calendar month, including time spent reviewing screening results, developing a care plan, and communicating with the psychiatric consultant and the family. Code 99493 covers 60 min of care in a subsequent month. Code 99494 is anadd-on code for an additional 30 min in any given month. These codes can be used for children with disorders but also for those with symptoms or issues that don't yet meet formal diagnostic thresholds but are clearly impairing them. There are other new CPT codes to help pay for our work managing patients with mental health needs beyond the 96127 code for screening. For shorter collaborative care visits for behavioral health problems, code G2214 may apply. G2214 is specifically for billing CoCM services, which involve a primary care team working in collaboration with a behavioral health professional. It can be used for both the initial 30 min of CoCM services and in subsequent months of care. The code applies to the first 30 min of behavioral healthcare manager activities, consultations with a psychiatric consultant, and direction from the treating physician. Remember also to use code G2211, available since January 1 this year, as an add-on code with a -25 extender that may be reported with new and established evaluation and management services (codes 99202-99215), including telehealth visits, when you are the continuing focal point for all healthcare services for the patient with a chronic condition. This code is not for time-limited patient relationships or if you do not plan to take responsibility for subsequent, ongoing medical care with consistency and continuity over time. Note that patients may have a copay or coinsurance and that private insurance is not required to pay for this code (G2211). We are all caring for children with ADHD, depression, school refusal, autism, anxiety, and oppositional behaviors who qualify and whose care requires repeated phone calls, reviewing teacher forms, checking PHQ-9s or SCARED scores, and communicating back and forth with schools and psychiatrists. Now, we can be paid, in part, for our efforts. To provide this collaborative care and bill for it, you need to set up a structure. You may need a behavioral healthcare manager. This could be someone already in your office who can take on the role with some training. You do need a consulting child psychiatrist, who could be consulted via telehealth. You will need a system for tracking symptoms and outcomes, ideally using validated screening or monitoring questionnaires. Electronic health records may help but there are also third-party platforms — such as CHADIS for all mental health or MeHealth for ADHD — that support the use of pre-visit questionnaires, symptom tracking, automated scoring of validated instruments, and guideline-based documentation to share online with your consulting psychiatrist. Sharing this patient data asynchronously may be more feasible, increase the validity of the consultation, and assist in the required documentation for billing. Workflow change is difficult, but you can start a collaborative care approach with just one or two patients. Once the process is in place, you are likely to find that it not only improves care but also improves overall workflow. Instead of running over time from the behavior-focused visit into the next appointment, you can engage the care manager to set up a consultation and let the family know about the process. While we are the primary professionals who have the relationship with the patient and family, we no longer have to be providing this essential care alone and uncompensated.
Yahoo
18-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Public servant who dedicated career to families and safeguarding awarded MBE
A DEDICATED public servant who devoted her career to families and safeguarding children has been awarded an MBE. Pier Pritchard, 62, was named in the King's Birthday Honours list on Friday, June 13 for services to children and family care. She grew up in Jersey but moved to Salisbury as a teenager in 1982 to pursue voluntary opportunities in the field and has stayed ever since. Read more Charity CEO inspired by son's rare kidney condition to help others awarded MBE Grand Wiltshire home of former Prime Minister gets top award Pier was nominated for the award by Wiltshire Council's senior leadership team and received the good news around a month ago. She said: 'It was a real surprise. I'm absolutely delighted and touched. One of the hardest things was not being able to tell anyone. 'I have been absolutely overwhelmed since then by kind messages from friends, family and colleagues. I'm very thankful to those people.' Pier received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the National Children and Young People Awards in October 2024 (Image: Wiltshire Council) Pier had not planned to have a career in social work but became 'hooked' when she started volunteering with children. She later moved into safeguarding and spent most of her 40-year career working for Wiltshire Council, leading innovating work that supported families and protected children facing challenges in their lives. Pier also supported colleagues through significant change after Ofsted judged Wiltshire's Children's Service as 'inadequate' in 2012. The service was rated 'outstanding' in 2023. 'I'm very steadfast and determined,' Pier said. 'I really want to support families. The satisfaction of that work comes through supporting families through tough experiences. 'You need to have passion and want to see families and their children do well. The most important thing is them staying together as families. 'It's important to be open and honest with people. Social work can have a bad press, but I've really enjoyed it. 'I've valued the support that I've had within the council and multi-agency groups, and friendships have developed from that. 'I've worked for Wiltshire Council for almost all those 40 years. They're such a good employer. 'It's important to work within an organisation that supports their staff.' Pier retired from her senior management position in April 2025 and hopes to spend more time with her family, reading and enjoying nice weather, but she plans to stay involved in safeguarding through fostering and adoption panels. Read more Former chair of Salisbury NHS trust recognised in King's birthday honours Decision on plans to open second Lidl supermarket in Salisbury hit with delays Wiltshire Council chief executive Lucy Townsend said: 'This honour is a fitting way to celebrate Pier's extraordinary work in children's social care. 'With over 40 years of dedicated service, Pier has been a tireless advocate for safeguarding and family support in Wiltshire. 'Her leadership in pioneering initiatives like Family Group Conferences, PAUSE and the Family Drug and Alcohol Court has been vital in the success of our services and, on behalf of everyone at the council, I would like to congratulate Pier on receiving her well-deserved MBE.'
Sky News
03-06-2025
- General
- Sky News
'Breaking point' as people in last 12 months of life occupy 'almost a fifth of Welsh hospital beds'
People in the last 12 months of their life occupy "almost a fifth of Welsh hospital beds", according to a end of life care charity. Marie Curie Cymru says end of life care in Wales is "at breaking point" and is calling on the next Welsh government to ensure high-quality care. The charity says that, for many, support could be better provided at home or close to home, as it launched its manifesto for next year's Senedd election at Cardiff Bay's Norwegian Church on Tuesday. Gareth Miles died at home in Llanddarog, Carmarthenshire, in September 2023. Mr Miles, who had Parkinson's disease, had spent 10 weeks in hospital before his last week. His daughters, Branwen, Eiry and Elen, are calling for better care at home for those who have a palliative or end-of-life care condition. "Once [her father] was in hospital, even though he was better after 10 days, he couldn't be discharged because he lost the care package," she said. "He was being supported by carers twice a day because of his Parkinson's and his arthritis, and without the carers, we would have been unable to care for him ourselves. "So he spent a long time in hospital, waiting for a care package to be reinstated and, while he was there, his condition deteriorated." While calling for "better links" between health and social care, Mrs Miles said the support from Marie Curie was "invaluable". "Without their support, my father would have been stuck in hospital and his death would have been very painful for all of us, in quite a distressing environment," she added. 'Surrounded by his family' Remembering her father fondly, she said he was a "great person" with a "very fulfilling life". "He saw himself as a very lucky man because, as well as being able to do a job that he loved, he also had family and friends that loved him," she added. "So it was just very sad then that he spent the end of his life in those circumstances. "But luckily, we were able to bring him home and he had what he would call a good death in the end, surrounded by his family. "My intention through sharing this just to hopefully raise awareness of the issue and hopefully make sure that other people are aware of the support that they have." Natasha Davies, senior policy manager for Marie Curie Cymru, told Sky News the palliative and end of life care system in Wales was at "breaking point" and "under immense pressure". "The result of that is that too many people are not able to access the care and the support that they need, when they need it, where they need it," she said. "I think what those experiences show us is the profound impact that getting this right can have, not just on the person who's terminally ill, but also on those close to them." Ms Davies acknowledged hospital would be "the right and best place" for some people to receive their care. "But for others, we know that those hospital admissions, particularly via emergency department, could be reduced or avoided," she added. The Welsh government said: "Good palliative and end of life care can make a huge difference to those with life-limiting illness, helping them to die with dignity, and help the grieving process for those left behind. "We provide more than £16m a year to make sure everyone has access to the best possible end of life care. This includes setting national standards, boosting community services and ensuring people receive the support they need. "We are working with health boards and local authorities, supported by monthly discharge data, to improve the safe discharge of patients from hospital. This applies equally to people requiring end of life care."
