Problems Facing Caregivers


At present there is no quantified data demonstrating the work being carried out in family caregiving homes. We see the impacts of this work in caregiver burnout and emergency hospital admissions. We see the policies that contribute to caregiving crisis when patients are sent home through early discharge, hospital to home, and aging in place without adequate supports for caregivers accounted in the planning.

"To properly support caregivers and care providers, public policy needs to consider caregivers and care providers as relevant partners in health and social services. This will require more than just a shift in perspective; it will require bold public policy solutions to address the problems facing caregivers and care providers." https://canadiancaregiving.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/CCCE_Giving-Care.pdf

We aren't going to be able to shift perspectives without quantified data from family caregiving homes. We need to show the impact of caregiving provided by families as compared to caregiving provided by health providers. 

Imagine a health providing institution trying to get equivalent work done by unpaid family caregivers by requiring unpaid contributions from their staff?

The assumption of unpaid contributions for caregiving borne by families permeate our society. For example, the CRA Disability Tax Credit Certificate (a 16 page form to be completed by caregivers and their care recipient doctor) reduces caregiver taxable income by $8,800 per year. This is a drop in the bucket when you factor the cost of providing family home care infrastructure (bed, bedroom, common area, transportation, etc.). How is this amount even remotely reflective of the cost of housing, insurance, property tax, gas and utilities; not to mention groceries, Internet, cell phone). And how do we quantify the cost of time? The time provided by a caregiving family to ensure the health and well being of a care recipient?

The problems facing caregivers cannot be adequately understood without quantified caregiving data from family caregiving homes.

The biggest problem caregivers are facing is the absence of quantified caregiving data to show the impact of caregiving on family and caregiver health and well being.




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