Long Term Care Is a Woman's Issue

Women Are the Caregivers

• Seventy percent of unpaid caregivers are women.
• The average woman can expect to spend more time caring for an elderly parent than she spends caring for a child.
• Thirty-five percent of women caring for the elderly are over 65, and 10 percent are over 75.
• One woman in five has a parent living with them, and more than 50 percent of caregivers work outside the home.
• Ninety-three percent of the 1.5 million long term care workers in the United States are women.
  

The Effects of Caregiving on Women

• Caregiving is hard physical work that increases a woman's chances of injury.
  • One in eight Alzheimer's Disease family caregivers becomes ill or injured as a direct result of caregiving.
  • One in three use medication for problems related to caregiving.
• More than 50 percent of caregiving women experience depression, anxiety, exhaustion, and feelings of helplessness.
• Caregiving responsibilities can also endanger a woman's future economic security.
  • Time away from the job to care for a family member with a disability or chronic illness is reflected in lower wages, lower Social Security benefits, and higher health costs.
    

Women Need Long Term Care

• Seventy-five percent of all nursing home residents 65 years or older are women.
  • The typical nursing home resident is an 85-year-old woman who enters a nursing home because she lives alone or no caregiver is available.
• Eighty percent of the elderly living alone are women.
• Seventy-five percent of the elderly are women unable to pay for long term care or to purchase long term care insurance.
  • In 1990, the yearly median income of women 65 years and over was $8,044.
    

Compiled by the Lincoln/Greater Nebraska Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association, 1999.