1.4 million U.S. Children Are Caregivers For Parents
1.4 million U.S. Children Are Caregivers For Parents.
According to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 22% of high school “children” dropouts cite caregiving as the reason for leaving school.
Melinda Kavanaugh is one of only a few scholars around the country studying the physical and psychological well-being of these young people who are left out of other caregiver studies. Her work focuses on how to talk to children and older youths about living with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), based on her clinical social work practice and research with families, children, and youths affected by neurological diseases.
“Some kids are primary caregivers – they get up in the morning, get their parents set up, and go to school. Then they come home after school to continue. The other parent may travel for work or work long hours. Some kids are in single parent households. They have to keep their fingers crossed nothing happens when they’re in school.”
60% of kids who provide care acknowledge it affects school performance and attendance. It also prevents after school activities.
Don’t put your children through this type of childhood experience. Nobody knows when a disability might happen. Lou Gehrig’s disease typical onset is about age 50 but can happen at any age. That is only one of hundreds of maladies or accidents that might require long term care. As we age the odds of needing care go up to 70% by the time we’ve reached 65. Your retirement savings will not cover retirement and another monthly bill of $4000 to $11,000 a month as well for home or facility care.
If you are healthy now, investigate long term care insurance. Just like life insurance you must be healthy to get it. Things like blood pressure or cholesterol which would make life insurance a problem, do not affect long term care insurance. But a bum knee, arthritis, or diabetes do, and can prevent you’re getting this.
If chosen appropriately, the insurance is not expensive. Appropriately chosen means working with someone experienced in this product, someone who knows the actual local costs where you live. Someone who takes into consideration the spending changes when someone can no longer drive, travel or even go out for dinner.
At TheLongTermCareGuy.com we’ve been doing nothing but this for the past 24 years. Call us and schedule a time that we can help you investigate. (920) 884-3030
