Family caregiving affects millions of Americans every day, in all walks of life. At least 17.7 million individuals in the United States are caregivers of an older adult with a health or functional limitation. The nation's family caregivers provide the lion's share of long-term care for our older adult population. They are also central to older adults' access to and receipt of health care and community-based social services. Yet the need to recognize and support caregivers is among the least appreciated challenges facing the aging U.S. population. Families Caring for an Aging America examines the prevalence and nature of family caregiving of older adults and the available evidence on the effectiveness of programs, supports, and other interventions designed to support family caregivers. This report also assesses and recommends policies to address the needs of family caregivers and to minimize the barriers that they encounter in trying to meet the needs of older adults.

Winner of 2018 Caregiver Friendly Book Award-Today's Caregiver Magazine Finalist--2018 Next Generation Indie Awards Gold Medalist--2018 Living Now Book Awards Want to help elders live with more passion, dignity, joy and purpose? This person-centered guide shows how. Over six million elders reside in long-term care. Many have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's or other medical conditions. Some struggle with depression, loneliness, and lack of purpose. Creating a Rich and Meaningful Life in Long-Term Care challenges our notions of what it means to grow old, to live in a long-term care community and to have dementia. Drawing on two decades of experience in long-term care, Ms. Konarzewski shows family caregivers and eldercare professionals how to help elders thrive, grow, and live with more joy, inspiration, and purpose. Practical tips, insights, and suggestions for designing programs are interwoven with stories illustrating how these are put into practice. Programs include honoring wisdom, celebrating lives and dreams, and healing through nature, poetry, massage therapy, and the expressive arts. By emphasizing the importance of presence, unconditional love, and seeing beyond the surface, the book illuminates how to find and nurture the spark of life, no matter how incoherent or frail someone may be. The book uplifts, surprises, and inspires, bringing hope, humor, and a new perspective on aging in long-term care. An essential resource guide for anyone who cares for elders.

Published in cooperation with the Center for Practice Innovations, Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University Increased life expectancy, the deinstitutionalization of persons with mental illness, the rise of home health care, and advances in medical technology have resulted in greater numbers of dependent people requiring care by family members. The frail elderly, the chronically mentally ill, and the physically disabled are examples of such groups who now receive their daily care in the community. How do families accept the burden of this care? What are the physical and emotional demands of such caregiving? Are the families prepared to assume this role? Family Caregiving Across the Lifespan considers the broad spectrum of chronic illnesses that necessitate family caregiving throughout the lifespan and expands the caregiving paradigm by including in its focus both members of the caregiving dyad and significant non-family caregivers. It also explores the social context in which care is provided--an entire section of the volume is devoted to discussions of the interface between informal and formal caregivers and society at large. Among the other subjects this volume addresses are the negative consequences of family caregiving, the value of providing support to caregivers, and caregivers of persons living with AIDS. Family Caregiving Across the Lifespan is important reading for those in social work, nursing, family medicine, and clinical psychology. "Family Caregiving Across the Lifespan represents a significant milestone in the continuing maturation of this vital area of long-term care. The title is an understatement of the authors′ accomplishments. . . .Rather than offering narrow boxes or labels, the book invites the reader to join in a broadened perspective on caregiving so that it can more fully reflect the richness of the lives of all involved. . . .For those who encounter Family Caregiving Across the Lifespan as part of their continuing study of caregiving, the book provides the integrating milestone of caregiving literature." --Journal of Case Management "This volume is a useful compendium of articles on family caregiving. The fourteen chapters in this volume address many important topics in family caregiving. One of the book′s major contributions is its clarification that family caregiving to frail or chronically ill people has no age limitation, although there are unique issues at different points in the development of individuals and families. The book has exceptional merit. It expands our understanding of family caregiving, provides important ideas for future research, offers research findings that enhance our understanding of family care, and presents a very useful review of the literature. This book would be a beneficial addition to the library of all researchers in the area of caregiving. They will discover worthwhile conceptualizations and gain new insights that can inform their research. Practitioners should also benefit from this collection. The chapters addressing interaction between forma land informal caregivers should give practitioners a deeper understanding of how to be more effective in dealing with informal caregivers and care recipients." -Ageing & Society "One paper [in this volume] deserves particular notice because it attempts to do what many of the authors feel is most critical in caregiving research but also most difficult, namely, to analyze the effectiveness of caregiving, the effect of provision of care on elder health outcomes. This is an important and original conceptualization of the problem..." -Steven M. Albert, Contemporary Gerontology "This book is both unique and valuable because it embraces Brody′s observation that family caregiving is not limited to a specific segment of the life span. Moreover, the book is not limited to filial caregiving, but entertains an impressive variety of contexts of family caregiving. . . . This book will be a valuable text in graduate-level courses." --Journal of Marriage and the Family