Thank you to everybody who took the Survival Coalition Family Caregiver Survey. Share the results with your legislators. Share your story and ask them to make family caregiving a priority in the next state budget.

Survey results (summary sheet PDF)

·         Families provide 80% of care for children and adults with disabilities and older adults.

·         Family caregivers fill in the gaps for decades.

o   4 of 5 have been caregiving at least 10 years.

o   1 of 3 expect to continue caregiving next 30 years.

·         Families are caregiving all the time.

o   In 24 hours, 1 of 2 are providing more than 12 hours of caregiving per day

o   70% are caregiving during the day, 90% are caregiving at night.

o   84% are weekend caregivers.

·         When there is no worker, families’ lives are thrown into crisis.

o   In a week, 3 of 5 spend more than 40 hours – the equivalent of a full-time job—on caregiving duties.

o   20% of families are interrupted during day at least once a week to provide care.

o   20% of families are interrupted during day at least once a week to provide care.

·         Families are the back-up for paid help.

o   1 of 2 caregivers can’t find anyone to hire and are providing all the care.

o   1 of 2 family caregivers said if family could no longer provide care, their loved one would be unable to remain at home.

·         Many leave the workforce or must work less because of caregiving responsibilities.

o   40% have left the workforce entirely.

o   Another 20% have been forced to reduce their hours to part-time.

o   Working caregivers need flexibility from employers (58%), jobs close to home (47%), virtual options or flexible hours (46%), jobs that can be scheduled for certain hours (44%), and part time jobs (30%).