With life expectancy increasing and innovations in home healthcare technology, most of us will fulfil the role of family caregiver at some point in our lives. On the one hand, caregiving is a rewarding job. On the other, it’s demanding and no one is equipped to do it alone. Which begs the question, who is caring for the caregiver?
The world over, women are the primary providers of informal, unpaid care for family members, including the elderly and adults with chronic medical conditions, physical disabilities, and mental illnesses. We have a vested interest in gender and caregiving. Add to that it being Women’s Month, and that’s why we were drawn to finding out everything we could about gender differences in caregiving. Our findings may surprise you!
The share of older adults living alone has been steadily increasing since 1996, from 14.6% to 20.2% in 2011, according to Statistics South Africa. That’s close to 1 million seniors ageing alone. When you couple that with studies confirming seniors who live alone have a lower life satisfaction, it’s a crisis we must tackle.
