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Parent Trap: Baby Boomers Risk Health Toll as Caregivers

Medill Reports, 12/10/08

Abstract:

Like many baby boomers, Wendy Bartlett just became an empty nester. But her children grew up long ago – it’s her 81-year-old mother who moved out.

After three years of caregiving, Bartlett packed her mother’s belongings into four boxes and sent them to New York.

Her mother, who has Alzheimer’s disease and macular degeneration, is moving in with Bartlett’s sister after Bartlett’s husband suffered a heart attack.

“It became very clear that taking care of my mom the way I needed to and then to take care of my husband" wasn’t possible, said Bartlett, 55. She works at a wedding planning company and directs a non-profit organization in Crown Point, Ind., where she lives.

Still, packing up her mother’s belongings was “one of the hardest things I had to do,” she said. But the move was essential for her husband’s health and her own.

As the population ages, a growing number of baby boomers are finding themselves the primary caregivers for their elderly parents. Unpaid caregivers provide 80 percent of in-home care to the elderly.

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