Who Cares For The Elderly?

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Who cares for the elderly? Boomers are aging, and they'll need someone to

look after them. The White House advises 'look to yourself.'By Arlie Hochschild

ARLIE HOCHSCHILD is the author of " The Second Shift: Working Parents and the

Revolution at Home " (Penguin, 2003), among other books. She teaches sociology at

UC Berkeley.

 

December 10, 2005

 

THE AGE WAVE has hit shore. Americans over 65, now 12% of the population, will

grow to 20% by 2030. With fewer young people around to care for this increasing

number of older people, how are we going to cope? That's the critical question

that should be answered at the fifth White House Conference on Aging, which

begins Sunday. But there are few signs it will be.

 

Ever since President Kennedy initiated the first such White House conference in

l961, organizers have consulted activists and experts around the nation in

search of good ideas. At every conference — held each decade since then — such

ideas have focused on improvements, to use the words of the Older Americans Act,

" in the areas of income, housing, health, employment, retirement and community

services. "

 

But as Dorcas Hardy, appointed by President Bush to head the conference's

planning, told me, " This conference is different. " For one thing, its guiding

philosophy stresses individual responsibility more and federal action less.

What, I asked, did she hope would result from the conference?

 

" Greater awareness of healthy diet and exercise, " she said. She then mentioned

" long-range care " but quickly added that " not everything is up to the federal or

state government. "

 

This year's conference differs in other ways too. It's by far the smallest and

the latest in getting organized. Until late 2004, officials wavered on whether

to hold it at all.

 

According to Marvin Schachter, a member of the California Commission on Aging,

" This time, the style is top down. The organizers held 'listening sessions.'

[but] they chose the speakers. We listened. "

 

One thing is sure: Technology will have a say. A 10,000-square-foot " Imagine

Pavilion " at the Washington Convention Center will showcase 33 technologies

including GrandCare Systems' Relaware, which will display sensors able to report

an elderly patient's daily moves in a private bedroom at home.

 

Delegates may also meet " Pearl, " who can gad about the floor of understaffed

nursing homes, reminding a person to eat, drink, take a pill or go to the

toilet. She announces the weather and programs on television. She's a 4 1/2

-foot-tall robot nurse with wide eyes, a red mouth and eyebrows that move.

Developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of

Pittsburgh, Pearl is funded by Intel. According to the Robotics Institute at

Carnegie Mellon, robots such as Pearl provide " social interaction. "

 

In real life, of course, caregivers are human beings. Two-thirds of all care

that older people receive is offered free by family and friends — and mostly by

women in their 40s and 50s who hold full-time paying jobs as well. Such women

can't quit their jobs, and even as they age, the administration doesn't want

them to. As Hardy commented, " We want retirees to think about coming back off

the golf course " and going back to work. But caught between " take care of

grandma yourself, " " don't expect much from government " and " stay on the job "

rhetoric, these women are nowhere near a golf course.

 

How about the men? They're doing more eldercare than they did. In one study, 47%

of men and 53% of women who provided any eldercare described themselves as

primary caregivers. Still, women do far more feeding, bathing and toileting, and

they put in longer hours. Wives who care for disabled husbands put in 28 hours a

week; husbands who care for disabled wives put in 15. Daughters who care for

disabled parents provide 13 hours of care a week; sons, 10 hours.

 

Sons and daughters, nieces and nephews are doing their labor of love. But many

of the elderly live on the margin and face state cuts in hours for home

healthcare. In cities such as Los Angeles, transportation is a problem. In

nursing homes, caregivers come and go. The annual turnover rate among care

workers is 60% for nonprofit nursing homes and more than 100% in for-profit ones

— mainly due to low wages. Money that might have addressed these needs has gone

to tax cuts and war. But for those struggling to combine a third shift of

eldercare with a first shift at the office and a second shift at home, the real

heroic struggle is on the home front.

 

Let's see what happens at the conference. But so far, the Bush administration

promises us a small rowboat to ride a giant wave. Sure, we should row well —

should eat right, exercise, plan ahead. But rowboats aren't enough. We need an

" Imagine Pavilion " to showcase public policies for the old and their caregivers

— paid and unpaid — who make life happier for them. And as for Pearl, let's send

her back to the factory where she came from.

 

 

 

 

" When the power of love becomes stronger than the love of power, we will have

peace. "

Jimi Hendrix