Midlife women shoulder burden of homecare.

As public hospitals discharge patients sooner, perform more day surgeries and cut acute hospital beds in an attempt to save precious health care dollars, and as insurance companies cut precious healthcare corners, it is women who are picking up the slack. New publications from the Kaiser Family Foundation in the US, and the Centres of Excellence for Women's Health in Canada indicate that it is women who provide the vast majority of caregiving.

Some facts worth noting:

* 80% of paid and unpaid caregivers are women.

* Caregivers are at risk of poor health themselves due to the physical and emotional challenges of caregiving. A survey found that 3 out of 4 homecare providers are women between 50 and 65 years of age.

* Unpaid caregiving may prevent women from seeking paid employment or impact their paid work in negative ways. In one survey, 50% of unpaid homecare givers quit their jobs or accepted part-time work in order to manage their homecare responsibilities.

* While women perform the bulk of unpaid caregiving, women constitute a small minority of those who make decisions regarding homecare policies.

* Caregivers are faced with increased risks for violence and other physical injuries. One survey found that 48% of all work related injuries were experienced by homecare assistants.

Not only are women the major providers of homecare, we are also the major recipients: more than 2/3rds of those requiring homecare are women--many of whom are senior women with inadequate resources to provide for their own care.

For more on women and caregiving responsibilities in the US, see: Women, Work and Family Health: A Balancing Act by the Kaiser Family Foundation, www.kff.org/content/2003/3336/or call: 202-347-5270.

For more on women and homecare in Canada, see: Who Cares? Costs and Benefits of Caregiving, produced by the Centres of Excellence in Women's Health: www.cewh-cesf.ca/bulletin/v3n1/index.html or call 1-888-818-9172.