The Elder Care Study: Everyday Realities and Wishes for Change

Download the full report

FWI is proud to partner with The Shriver Report: A Woman's Nation Takes on Alzheimer's. Ellen Galinsky spoke at a forum on October 18 presented by The Center for American Progress and the Alzheimer's Association and featuring authors of The Shriver Report. Watch video of the event here.

Please use this study as a call to action and send us your positive ideas for better aging. We will share them as broadly as possible and help to turn them from wishes into realities. To submit your ideas, send an email to eldercare@familiesandwork.org.

Blog posts featuring FWI's elder care report:

• Huffington Post
• FWI blog
• BlogHer

Highlights of Findings:

• 42% of employed people in the U.S. report that within the past five years, they have provided "special attention or care for a relative or in-law 65 years old or older—helping with things that were difficult or impossible for them to do themselves."


• 44% of workers who have provided elder care in the past five years have cared for more than one person in that time period.


• Working men and women are equally likely to be family caregivers


• 24% of women in the workforce and 25% of men expect to provide care for a relative or inlaw in the coming five years.


• Family caregivers' top wishes for the way in which workplaces could better support them as caregivers include: greater flexibility, more options for managing time; time off for elder care, especially paid time off without having to use up vacation time; and more understanding of their situation from management.


• In terms of their own aging, caregivers' wishes are more about what they do not want, rather than what they do want: not to be a "burden" to others, especially to their children; not to burden themselves or others with unaffordable expenses; and not to end up in a nursing home.