Baby Boom Caregivers: Care in the Age of Individualization

Abstract

The new conception of caregiving as work that can and should be shared with services is in direct opposition to public policy that is based on the assumption of family care as the cornerstone of long-term care. Can the healthcare system adapt to the new expectations of the Baby Boom generation or will these caregivers be forced to take on elements of caregiving they no longer consider legitimate?

Sustaining care for a parent with dementia: an indefinite and intertwined process

“…They are known to experience care differently from spouses, typically balancing numerous roles—such as adult child, parent, and employee (Bastawrous, Gignac, Kapral, & Cameron, 2014); use more informal supports (Pinquart & Sörensen, 2011); and tend more toward managing care (e.g., arranging services) than providing hands-on assistance (Brodaty & Donkin, 2009). With the majority of females employed in the labour market, caregiving is increasingly viewed as “work” beyond normative family expectations, which has created greater demands for public services (Guberman, Lavoie, Blein, & Olazabal, 2012). As the extent of filial obligation remains an open philosophical and policy question (Stuifbergen & Van Delden, 2010), care responsibilities tend to be unequal among adult child siblings (Connidis & Kemp, 2008) with inconclusive explanations of how various factors (e.g., employment, geographic proximity, family relationships (Egdell, 2012)) influence certain adult children to sustain care responsibilities over others.…”

Older Workers and Caregiving in a Global Context

“…The Gerontologist special issue on Baby Boomers (Pruncho 2012) included 12 articles, four of which addressed aspects of the baby boomers as caregivers: comparison with earlier cohorts (Ryan et al 2012); enduring intergenerational relationships with parents and adult children (Fingerman et al 2012); boomers' expectations of support from paid service providers in balancing caregiving, work, family, and social life (Guberman et al 2012); health status of this generation as caregivers (Hoffman et al 2012).…”

The Invisible Women: Gender and Caregiving in Francophone Newspapers

“…Thus, as stated earlier, the coverage is sporadic and reliance on informal caregivers remains strong, which is becoming increasingly problematic due to the shared commitment to maintain older adults in their own domicile as long as possible. Recent European and Canadian studies have emphasised that this is also a desired objective for older adults, as long as this can be achieved without having to depend on their children (Masuy, 2010;Guberman et al, 2012).…”