Informal carers: the backbone of long-term care Budapest, February 22nd 2010 Manfred Huber, Ricardo Rodrigues, Frédérique Hoffmann, Katrin Gasior and Bernd Marin

Portrait of Informal Carers Challenges to avoid future Care Gaps Further Research & Preliminary Conclusions

Portrait of Informal Carers

More than 80% of all care is provided by family carers By love? By choice? By opportunity? By constraint?

Who cares? Source: OECD (2005); National Sources for Israel and the Slovak Republic; EUROFAMCARE national reports (2004). Relationship between the carer and the care recipient in percentage

Labour of love Source: EUROFAMCARE and national sources. Family help as a percentage of help to people aged 75+ by country and domain, 2000/2001

Other types of help In Russia financial support ‘is the most widespread form of help that older parents receive from their adult children (Kholostova, 2002 p.16). Help in running a farm as a subsistence means is also more widespread in Eastern Europe

It‘s a Woman‘s World Source: National sources, OECD (2005) and EUROFAMCARE national reports. Regardless of „care regimes“ Family carers by gender and country

Carers: United in Diversity Source: Own calculations based on Walker (1999). Intimacy at a distance in the North Sharing roof and care in the South Percentage of the population aged 15+ providing informal care to a relative aged 60+ (1999)

Loneliness in very old-age... Living arrangements for older people, by gender (based on 2001 Census data) Source: UNDESA/Population Division (2005), Eurostat 2001 Census data. Older Northern Europeans likely to live alone… … unlike older Southern Europeans (albeit less and less so) Greece – Total 65+ Source: Karagiannaki (2005)

What Children Want Source: Eurobarometer (2008), question: 7a. Older people want to age in place but... Question 7a: If your elderly parent lives alone and needs long-term care, what in your opinion would be the best option?

Overburdened Carers? Source: EUROBAROMETER (2007) EUROBAROMETER (2007):In your opinion, do dependent older people rely too much on their relatives? Lack of care services… Providing care to co- residents… Heavy care… … explaining carers’ burden?

Full-time carers are likely to experience some degree of isolation and/or psychological distress (depression, anxiety…) Countries from the NMS who feel they should take care of the elderly themselves also report high levels of over-reliance

Ageing Carers They could endanger their own physical & mental health: In Italy 10% of care is provided by the 80+ In Kyrgyz Rep. with high levels of emigration, older people are carers of their grandchildren...is this also a pattern for other ‘donor’ countries?

Challenges to avoid future ‘care gaps’

A mid-life Occupation Source: OECD (2005), EUROFAMCARE national reports. Providing care for older family members by country and age group

Age group with the largest share of informal carers is the year olds This group is also being courted through the Lisbon Agenda to remain longer in the labour market...particularly women.

Reconciliation of care and paid work Source: National sources, EUROFAMCARE national reports, Lamura et al. (2006). Employment status of main carers by country and domain

Across the EU on average just over 40% of informal carers were in gainful employment Many caregivers end their professional career (50% in the NL) or reduce their hours of work as a result of caring.

Advantages of remaining in paid work Income and pension rights Helps to maintain social networks Offers a temporary relief from caring role Enhances self-esteem Offers the opportunity to share concerns with colleagues in a similar situation But…financial help to family carers varies among countries

What about attendance allowances? Amounts of attendance allowances in percentage of net wage of APW and its beneficiaries (2007 or most recent date) Source: Facts and Figures on Long-term care: Europe and North America (2009)

What might carers look like in the future?

Demographics bound to change picture Gender mainstreaming in policies (or lack of) Conciliating support for carers and employment policies Source: Eurostat “Support ratio”: number of women aged for each 80 year-old (2006 or 2005)

The demographic future of CARERs has already started – older and more often male Source: EUROFAMCARE national reports (2004). Average age of carers

The migrant carer to compensate for family care 15-20% of all Italians needing long-term care are cared for by “badanti” – migrant, mostly female carers from Ukraine, Romania... Austria has ‘legalised’ the so-called 24-hours care both in terms of labour law and in terms of nursing legislation Support and integration of migrant carers

Thought-provoking questions Ageing of carers: will (healthier) 65+ spouses take over from their daughters and daughters-in-law? Reconciliation of work and care duties…reconciliation of employment policies and support for care Who will take care of the elderly living in the ‘donor countries’?

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