United States: Ten million families are managing veterans, risking their money and their well-being for the retirees who defended or served Country.
Over 14 million people in the United States are now delivering care to ill and injured members of the military or veterans suggests new research. And it is data prove that care is costing and exhausting it.
As reported by the HealthDay, researchers also found that more than 40% of caregivers for younger veterans 60 or under have probable depression. In addition, one-third of the respondents said they require mental health care but are not getting it, mostly due to lack of time, as the research shows.
Faculty and staff said they spent more than USD 8,500 from their own pocket each year to support veterans, and they lost USD 4000 a year in additional earnings due to caregiving.
Those costs may be why a third of military or veteran caregivers also indicated an income less than 130% of the federal poverty level, researchers pointed out.
“Military and veteran caregivers are family members who do this out of love and obligation, but they are also friends and neighbors who are doing it out of caring and kindness,” said lead researcher Rajeev Ramchand of the RAND Corporation.
Care recipients get something out of the work these caregivers do, and the caregivers do too. There are still costs involved in undergoing such a role,” Ramchand added in a RAND news release.
Family caregivers of military service members and veterans support them in feeding and mobilization, of mental illness, dispensing of medications and cooking. It can also offer a means of transport to medical appointments, local pharmacy and supermarket runs, Although for this study, caregivers and veterans were only polled across the US.
The resulting report, “America’s Military and Veteran Caregivers: Unveiling the HIDDEN HEROES in employment: Moving beyond the ‘shadow’ economy A meta-synthesis of the available literature suggests that there are significantly more caregivers than previous literature would indicate.
Why the difference?
In the latest study, people were asked whether they perform specific caregiving activities in replacement whether they consider themselves a caregiver.
Based on that the researchers concluded that more than 40% of the Americans adults are providing some type of caregiving to wounded, ill or injured people.
More than half of military/veteran caregivers live in the southern or the western states and the urban areas results show, Texas, California, and Florida each have more than 1 million such kind of caregivers.