Report: Family caregiving in Kentucky cost billions

Unpaid caregiving by Kentucky’s more than 600,000 caregivers is valued at more than $8 billion, according to new state data by AARP.

AARP Kentucky executive council member Charles Williams said helping older residents live independently longer at home, providing training and support, and offering tax credits to caregivers could help address the growing scope and complexity of the problem.

“Sixty percent of people are full-time or part-time workers, 40% of them are juggling all kinds of emotional stress, and paid family leave and all those kinds of things,” he said, “and those things adversely affect their job performance and their home performance.”

In 2019, roughly 30% of family caregivers of older Americans lived in a household that included kids or grandkids.

Within the next decade, adults ages 65 and older are projected to outnumber children younger than 18, meaning the number of potential caregivers won’t keep pace with the number of older adults at risk for needing long-term care. Williams said unless lawmakers, employers and institutions take the issue seriously, society could face a crisis.

“There’s going to be a breaking point,” he said. “I don’t know what that breaking point is. But I think it will have a significant emotional and financial impact on the nation.”

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, an estimated 420,000 nursing-home workers have left the workforce nationwide since the start of the pandemic, and high turnover rates continue to exacerbate the shortage of the nation’s direct-care workers.