2006 State Report > Our Health > Long-Term Care > Caregiving
Our Health: Caregiving
There are 400,000 family caregivers in South Carolina, providing 419 million hours of care per year at an estimated value of over $3.7 billion. Nearly one out of every five adults in South Carolina provides regular care or assistance to a frail elderly or disabled friend or family member over 60 years of age. Family caregivers have always provided most of the long-term care in our country.
Larger social trends are affecting the composition of families and their roles as caregivers, including the growing number of women in the workforce who must juggle work and caregiving responsibilities. Among 50- to 64-year-old caregivers, 60 percent are working full- or part-time. In addition, significant economic sacrifices during peak earning years are common among caregivers 50 and older who have been in the workforce.
Parents caring for aging children with cognitive and developmental disabilities represent a growing group in the older caregiver population. This trend reflects the emergence of two-generation families in which parents among the older or oldest age groups are caring for children who are in their 50s and 60s.
The National Family Caregiver Support Program, administered by the Lieutenant Governor's Office on Aging, was created under the Older Americans Act to address the needs of family caregivers by encouraging states to increase the availability of caregiver support services. The program became effective on November 13, 2000. South Carolina received $1.65 million (includes state and local match) in fiscal year 2002 to implement its program. Services provided by the program include:
- Information to caregivers about available services;
- Assistance to caregivers in gaining access to supportive services;
- Individual counseling, organization of support groups, and training to caregivers to assist them in making decisions and solving problems related to their caregiving roles;
- Respite care to enable caregivers to be temporarily relieved from their caregiving responsibilities; and
- Supplemental services, on a limited basis, to complement the care provided by caregivers.
In fiscal year 2005, South Carolina's Family Caregiver Support Program:
- Provided information to 5,676 family caregivers;
- Helped 6,223 caregivers access services;
- Provided support, counseling and/or training to 2,254 caregivers;
- Provided respite services to 1,841 caregivers;
- Provided 154,273 hours of respite care to 1,841 caregivers; and
- Provided supplemental services to 1,355 caregivers.
In 2002 the Administration on Aging funded a statewide survey of caregivers in South Carolina. The results of this survey showed that caregivers and the National Family Caregiver program can save significant state and federal funds by assisting caregivers continuing to provide care to their loved ones. The study of 1,500 caregivers showed that without their care, 50 percent of care recipients would go to nursing homes at a cost of $7.4 million to the state to provide Medicaid nursing home care for one year.