With the Baby Boomers aging, caregiving is also on the rise. In a 2020, 41.8 million Americans provided unpaid care to an adult over the age of 50. And with the rising costs of healthcare and demand, professional caregiving is often out of reach. This accounts for 89% of those providing informal, unpaid caregiving giving care to a relative. And the average length of informal caregiving for an individual is 4.5 years.

This unpaid caregiving can and does effect the people providing the care greatly. Unpaid caregiving trends show that often women are leaving the careers to provide care, cutting their careers short. Many of the women who leave the careers are facing financial difficulty. They often sell a home and consolidate homes with the aging relative. They loose their own health insurance. They are not contributing to their own retirement plans. Many believe they will make up the difference when the aging relative passes away; however, due to the length of the care or expense of the care, the aging relative uses all of their funds. They also face a great rate of divorce.

It feels like America’s system for caring for the elderly is broken and needs a serious legislative overhaul.

A book that celebrates a caregiver is:

Louisa Clark, who lives a very normal life, takes a much needed job caring for a young man, who was once the king of his universe. He was a successful businessman, traveling the world, enjoying the finer things, and participating in extreme sports before the accident. The accident leaves Will Traynor paralyzed. Will is sure that this is not the life he is willing to live. But Louisa will not let him wallow in self-pity because she cares of Will maybe a little too much.

Just a warning this series made me cry so much.