Informal Caring: Commonwealth Fund 2014 Health Policy Survey of Older Adult

Originally posted @ allaboutestates.ca on March 20, 2015

The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) is an independent not for profit organization that was created in 1994. Their vision is “Better data, Better decisions, Healthier Canadian” A great motto.

They recently released some interesting caregiving data which I felt important to share. Luckily, it is in an infochart. A picture is worth more than my 200 words, please take a look.

The data is from the Commonwealth Fund 2014 International Health Policy Survey of Older Adults (age 55 +).

In summary, their findings found that ‘Canadians generally spend more time as informal caregivers than people in other countries and they don’t get always get the support they need.’
– 1 in 5 older Canadians provided care to someone with an age related problem at least once per week which is the same as the international average of 11 countries
-47% of older carers spent at least 10 hours a week. This is higher than the international average of 40%
-Almost 25% of Canadian carers needed help in the past year but didn’t receive it. The main reason was lack of services and not knowing where to go for help.
-Canadian carers were more likely to experience distress, anger or depression when providing 10 or more hours of care weekly.

Any surprizes here?

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