Recently, The Ontario Caregiver Organization asked individuals who expect to face caregiving demands in the next five years, how prepared they were to take on these pending responsibilities. We wanted to explore this given the growing population of older adults in Ontario and projections of increased prevalence of disease and chronic illness in younger people as well. Given these trends, it is reasonable to anticipate that more Ontarians would be facing caregiving demands. What we didn’t expect were the insights from prospective caregivers on their plans, expectations and concerns about caregiving.

Ontario has approximately 4 million caregivers today.  It is astounding to think that up to 9 million Ontarians expect to face caregiving demands in the next five years. More sobering, though, is that 2.7 million do not expect to take on these responsibilities, either as a result of their own personal or financial capacity or because they expect our healthcare system to provide the care needed.  Many caregivers today would reject that expectation based on their experience.

Caregivers are the glue that holds our health and social care systems together. They provide 75% of patient/client care across the health and social care spectrum and are often the only individuals bridging the gap between services and supports.  Caregivers do this because it is vitally needed. Without caregivers, Ontarians who require support related to their physical and/or mental health needs could be at risk of countless issues affecting their care, quality of life, and lifespan. Many caregivers have stories about how their role prevented catastrophe(s) for the person they care for and they cannot imagine what life might be like for that person without the various things they do.

The challenge is that caregiving is an abstract concept until you’re doing it. Caregiving involves doing what is needed, when it is needed, whether that is supporting tasks of daily living, medical care, system navigation and a host of other activities - caregivers are constantly juggling tasks.  We also know that caregivers take on significant financial burdens, either paying out of pocket and/or through impact on their employment.  Future caregivers told us they are not ready for either of these pressures.

The data from this report gives us insights into the thoughts and needs of future caregivers and is a call to action for organizations such as ours to plan for the steep rise in caregivers coming in the next five years, and beyond. We know that early identification of and support for caregivers can make all the difference in preventing burnout and enabling them to be successful in their caregiving role. OCO has resources such as our Preparing to Care Tip Sheet that can help future and new caregivers plan and is developing more supports for future caregivers to help them prepare. We know that caregiving is coming for many more Ontarians and that we must all make plans for the benefit of caregivers, the people they care for, our healthcare system and society.

Read more in our report: Preparing to Care.

Republished with permission. 

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