Care about family caregivers: Chances are, you'll need one someday.

Byline: GUEST VIEWPOINT By Todd Peterson For The Register-Guard

Every day in our work with a local in-home care providers, we see family members providing many hours of essential care to loved ones who are chronically ill, disabled or elderly. All too often they are doing this difficult, emotionally and physically draining work alone.

Even when these caregivers - most of whom are women who also work outside the home - get some help from their children, friends or neighbors, the demands of providing care can be relentless. Day after day, their loved ones need help getting dressed, using the toilet, eating meals, taking medicine and visiting the doctor.

Most people don't know, and our politicians in Washington, D.C., rarely acknowledge, that family caregivers provide more than 80 percent of all home care services in the United States. That amounts to more than $257 billion worth of "free" services each year - more than was spent on all of Medicare in 2002, according to the National Alliance for Caregiving.

Today, more than 44 million adults in America are caring for a family member - 27 million of whom provide at least 20 hours of care each week, according to an AARP study. More than 66 percent of the care needs of the elderly are provided solely by family members.

By the year 2030, the U.S. Census Bureau projects that 20 percent of our population will be older than 65, resulting in an elderly population of more than 70 million people - a 102 percent increase from 2003. Considering that the fastest growing segment of our population is people older than 85 - half of whom require help with personal care - even more of the responsibilities for caregiving in the future will fall to family members.

For all Americans, this means caregiving concerns have moved from being a private family situation to a social issue. There is a strong connection between the difficulties families are having with meeting caregiving needs and the fact that our health care system was never set up to help people live at home with chronic health conditions.

It has been said that there are four kinds of people in the world: those who have been caregivers, those who are caregivers, those who will be caregivers, and those who will need caregivers. None of us will be excluded.

So what does this mean for residents of Lane County? Most importantly, it means we must realize that there is a large and growing need for community support of the many family caregivers in our midst.

If you haven't already done so, talk to friends and colleagues about their family experiences with caring for the elderly. You may be surprised at how many people have been touched by caring for family members.

It is time to educate yourself about issues involved in caregiving. A great place to start is the Web site: www.familycaregiving101.org.

You can begin learning about the financial impact that providing care for the elderly may have on your own family in the future and explore long-term care insurance options available. Medicare does not pay for in-home care, so families shoulder the full financial burden of caring for elders living at home.

You can start familiarizing yourself with local resources. Take a look at www .laneseniorservices.org as well as www .seriousillness.org/lane. Call the care providers and get information to help with your planning for family caregiving.

Typically, family caregivers have difficulty asking for help. You can make it easier for them by offering to do something very specific and nonthreatening: Offer a ride to church, to bring a dinner once a week, to rake the lawn, to shop for groceries, or to provide some respite time for the caregiver to take a break for themselves. Make a commitment the family caregiver can count on. Set a time and show up to share the care.

Just a little bit of help can make a big difference to someone in your neighborhood. Give a caregiving family a gift of recognition and thanks for the heroic work they're doing each day for their loved ones.

Todd Peterson is community relations coordinator for Home Instead Senior Care in Eugene.