Confronting The Nation's Crisis Of Care
1A
NPR
4.3 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 8 November 2023
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As the youngest of the baby boomers enter their sixties, and younger adults are having children later in life, many Americans – from Gen Z to Gen X – are finding themselves sandwiched between taking care of elderly parents and young kids at the same time.
Today's 65-year-olds have a 70 percent likelihood of needing long-term care in the future, all while the supply of home health aides is dwindling.
Nursing homes are also increasingly costly and inaccessible for families of low and moderate incomes.
We discuss what it's like to balance caring for young kids and aging adults simultaneously and managing your money or time as a family caregiver.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, it's Terry Gross, the host of Fresh Air. We bring you in-depth long-form interviews with actors, |
| 0:07.0 | directors, musicians, authors, journalists, and more. |
| 0:11.0 | Listen to our Peabody Award-winning Air Podcast from W HYY and NPR. The U.S. population is aging quickly. The share of Americans aged 65 and older grew |
| 0:30.8 | by more than a third last decade. That's the fastest rate of any |
| 0:34.0 | decade in more than a century according to data from the Census Bureau. By 2030 |
| 0:38.8 | Census estimates predict that the nation will have more adults over 65 than children. |
| 0:45.0 | As the youngest baby boomers enter their 60s and more adults are choosing to have children |
| 0:49.5 | later in life, many Americans are finding themselves taking care of elderly parents and young |
| 0:54.7 | kids at the same time. |
| 0:56.6 | That includes some of you. |
| 0:57.6 | Hi, my name is Jean and I'm 52. |
| 1:01.5 | I am the Health Power of attorney for my mother who's 90 and I have three children of my own. |
| 1:08.8 | I am separated now for two years. |
| 1:12.0 | I can say definitively that caring for my mother since COVID began |
| 1:18.0 | has greatly impacted my marriage and my relationship with my professional life and I think with my children. |
| 1:26.1 | I'm pulled in too many directions for anyone human. |
| 1:30.1 | Thanks for that message, Jean. |
| 1:32.0 | With fewer people to take care of the aging population, some health |
| 1:36.2 | care experts have deemed the current moment a crisis of care. After the break, we take a closer |
| 1:41.3 | look at how conversations around aging and caregiving are changing, |
| 1:45.2 | especially when it comes to cross-generational responsibilities. |
| 1:49.0 | I'm Jen White. You're listening to the 1-A podcast, where we get to the heart of the story. |
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