I heard a new term the other day describing families between the ages of 40 and 65 who are supporting both a young adult at home and their senior parents. They are called the sandwich generation, and it is growing in numbers. This group is often the primary caregivers to their aging parents. They are also the primary caregivers to raising their children, supporting them through school and assisting them to begin new careers and financially supporting them in purchasing their new homes.
It is a huge burden and one that will be increasing in the next decade. The majority of that caregiving goes unpaid but is essential. Those caregivers are unseen and unacknowledged upon which our health care, social services and disability systems are built. They make our economy tick and our lives run.
All that care falls back to families. For young families it means getting lunches made and then sending their children off to school, while arranging medical appointments and transportation for their parents, grocery shopping for two households and often preparing meals for the two households. It is exhausting and there is burn out and mental fatigue and provincial and federal policies are not meeting the new demands of Canada’s aging population. Sometimes the sandwich generation is reversed with grandparents having to support both their children and their grandchildren.
Canada is becoming a super aged country, and we are already seeing that in the district. It is placing a larger burden on families who struggle to look after parents and relatives whose names are on waiting lists for long-term care or who through necessity are taking up beds in hospitals.
The report “The Impact of Ontario’s Aging Population on the Home Care Sector” released on Monday notes that we will see a huge increase for home care workers as the growing number of residents dramatically increases in the age group 65 to 75 and will continue to surge for the next decade. When long term beds fill up and hospitals become filled with residents needing long term care, all that care will fall back to families.
The province of Ontario will require growth in all forms of health care. More PSW’s will be needed to keep seniors in their home supporting the family care givers. The report only says more will be needed but does not put numbers to paper. There are opportunities in Fort Frances through Confederation College and Seven Gens to grow their programs for PSW’s, Practical Nurses and Registered nurses. Riverside has used those facilities to train PSW workers already.
