More than 1 million U.S. children are caregivers

[Southpaw Bookworm]

To sick and disabled family members. That's 3-4 percent of American kids who are responsible in part for another human being. Another failure of our healthcare system: And we have the ovaries to call ourselves a first-world country?

More than 1 million children in the USA take care of sick or disabled relatives, shopping, feeding, dressing, medicating and even changing adult diapers, a government-financed study finds. It is the first to document what advocacy groups call a hidden national problem.

The 1.3 million to 1.4 million child caregivers, ages 8 to 18, have responsibilities more suited to adults, the national survey says. It will be presented at a conference Friday by the National Alliance for Caregiving and the United Hospital Fund, with financing from the U.S. Administration on Aging. (Related story: When child cares for parent)

"This is a failing of our health-care system," says Gail Gibson Hunt, president of the alliance, a non-profit coalition of family groups.

It estimates that 44.4 million adults in the USA provide unpaid care for another adult. But child caregivers largely have remained hidden and often stay silent because they fear being separated from parents.

A related story on children who take care of their ill or disabled parents:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2005-09-13-young-caregivers_x.htm

[TallahasseeGrannie]

1. My parents

were infirm for seven years before they passed away at 88 and 89. Good, long lives. But the final seven years were very, very difficult on everyone.

I am proud to say that Medicaid stepped in and made the financial burden easier with my dad, who needed many years of health care.

My mom was always in the 'assisted living' category and not elligible for any benefits, so we covered that ourselves.

[Team44Car]

2. that is horrible

[MountainLaurel]

3. Good God!

Imagine being 10 years old, and having to clean your mother's colostomy bag? The article details the emotional problems these kids have due to bearing such a burden at ages when they should be building clubhouses in the backyard or catching tadpoles in the creek.

I remember this movie from several years ago. It was a horror flick, but the premise revolved around this woman whose handicapped sister had died when she was a child. The girl had been left alone to take care of her sister, and was there by herself when the sister died. Could you imagine the head-fuck that would do to a 12-year-old?