McKnight’s Column – Mission possible: Caring for our Caregivers

Thank you, McKnight’s Home Care, for publishing “Mission possible: Caring for our caregivers” authored by Matthew Marek, Careforth president and CEO.

In this article, Matt discusses the recent analysis on Structured Family Caregiving which demonstrated an improvement of quality and a lower cost of care.

An excerpt: 

“The United States is in the clutches of a caregiver crisis. Caregivers as a whole are underserved, overlooked and undersupported. That issue can lead to poor health outcomes for those they are caring for and higher costs for the healthcare system, particularly payers.

Caregiving is one of the hardest, most important jobs in the world. These are wives and husbands, daughters and sons, neighbors next door and around the corner, who take care of a loved one at home who is either elderly or living with a disability or chronic health condition such as dementia.

Nearly one third of the US population either gives or receives family care at home. The US Department of Health and Human Services estimates that about 53 million Americans currently serve as caregivers. A 2022 statement from the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said, “Many of the more than 150 million people who receive healthcare coverage through Medicare, Medicaid and the Health Insurance Marketplaces rely on trusted friends and family for care.”

Yet many if not most caregivers are dealing with the unknown. I’ve never met a caregiver who was fully prepared, either physically or mentally, to be a caregiver without the benefit of some kind of professional assistance. We have too many people in need of care and a shortage of caregiver services and solutions.

All available evidence strongly suggests this national emergency will only get worse unless we take drastic action sooner rather than later. The good news is that strategies for coping with this crisis are at our fingertips.”

Read the full article here.