'More pressure on families.' Nearly half of US states are on the brink of a caregiving emergency [View all]
Source: USA Today
May 21, 2025 | Updated May 26, 2025 8:16 p.m. ET
Aisha Adkins, 40, barely had a chance to breathe between her mother's death and her father's vascular dementia diagnosis, both of which happened in 2023. Adkins, of Georgia, cared for her mother for a decade after her mom was diagnosed with frontotemporal degeneration dementia. At first, caring for her mom meant reminding her to turn off the stove after cooking and assisting with the laundry. Later, Adkins said, it meant bathing her, dressing her and feeding her.
Being a full-time family caregiver also meant putting some of her own needs to the side. She went several years without a job and without health insurance while caring for her mom. And Adkins said she's found it difficult to maintain friendships and other relationships while caring for her parents. Now, her father is her top priority.
“I would love to be married someday," Adkins said. "I don’t know if that’s something that will happen for me, just because caregiving is a full-time responsibility and not everyone has the capacity to understand what caregiving means, what it looks like and the sacrifice that it takes, and that they can’t always be your No. 1 priority."
A new study by Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health found nearly half of America's states are on the brink of a caregiving emergency, with the worst conditions being in the South. In the study, sponsored by Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, researchers developed a new scorecard to assess the urgency of local caregiving needs. States' scores are based on measures like the number of long-term care beds available, the number of paid health aids per resident, the percent of people over 65, the number of families paying more than 30% of their income toward housing, the AARP's long-term care rankings and the number of individuals with dementia in the state.
Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2025/05/21/columbia-university-state-caregiving-study/83651201007/
Link to Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health STUDY (PDF) - https://www.otsuka-us.com/media/static/01US25EUC0183_Columbia_Caregiving_State_Level_Data_Report_FINAL.pdf
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