Statistics and Trends

Things To Know

Most Seniors prefer to stay in their own home in familiar surroundings.
Seniors are walking history books and love to reminisce. They welcome new audiences for their stories.
Most older people are not alike, just as most younger people are not alike.
The majority of Seniors are rarely bored.
Many older people, about 78%, like to continue working, either in paid or voluntary positions.
Chief Problems of the elderly are:
Tight budgets
Purposeless existence
Poor health
Lack of affordable and trusting home-related services (care and assistance
As seniors age, they continue to be challenged by the changes that occur in their bodies and minds. It is at this time that they, noticing these changes, begin a reflection and self-assessment process about what they can and cannot do.
Change is more difficult to deal with as our senior’s age. However, it’s not impossible for older people to learn new things when given enough time, attention, opportunity and repetition of the material to be learned.
The reaction time of older people, regardless of the event, tends to be slower than younger people and requires understanding and assistance.
A large majority of seniors are reluctant to give up driving privileges.

Nearly a quarter (23.9%) of U.S. households are now involved in caring for an elderly family member or relative, spending an average of 20 hours a week in care giving related chores.
Care giving is largely a woman’s issue:
- Some 72% of caregivers are female, mostly wives and adult daughters.
- Nearly 65% are also employed outside of their care giving role.
- If you are a woman you can expect to spend 18 years of your life helping an aging parent and 17 years plus years caring for children
- Approximately 90% of all women over 18 will be caregivers of children or parents or both in their lives.
The average age of a caregiver is 57. More than one in three, however, are older themselves (65 years of age or older).
80% of caregivers provide unpaid assistance seven days a week
More than 60% of all family caregivers say they have suffered from depression.
Long distance caregivers miss nearly 15 million days of work each years (National council on Aging)
Long-term family caregiving takes a significant toll on workers. Lost productivity, absenteeism, interruptions and replacing employees due to elder care, costs American business in excess of $11.4 billion annually. (National Alliance for Caregiving/Glaxo Welcome Report, 1997)
A significant decline in the number of family caregivers is occurring in the U.S., while at the same time, the demand for elder care is increasing.