November is National Family Caregiving Month.  It is an opportunity for all of us to raise awareness of the 78 million caregivers in this country who are looking after a family member.

 

Caregiver Action Network (the National Family Caregivers Association) began promoting national recognition of family caregivers in 1994. President Clinton signed the first NFC Month Presidential Proclamation in 1997 and every president since has issued an annual proclamation recognizing and honoring family caregivers each November.

 

Each year the Caregiver Action Network chooses the theme for National Family Caregivers Month annually and spearheads the celebration of NFC Month nationally.  For National Family Caregivers Month 2022, the #CaregivingHappens campaign reflects the reality that often caregiving just happens. Caregiving can happen when you are in a meeting at work, or at the supermarket, or taking the children to school.  Becoming a caregiver can “just happen” also.  All of a sudden, a family member is taken ill, or is hurt in an accident, or becomes your responsibility even though you had not planned for this.

 

• Every year at least 78 million people provide informal – and usually unpaid – care and support to aging family members and people of all ages with disabilities. Read the National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers to learn more: ACL.gov/CaregiverStrategy #Caregiving

• Nearly 3 million grandparents – and an unknown number of other kinship caregivers – care for children whose parents were unable to do so. Learn more here: ACL.gov/CaregiverStrategy #Caregiving #Kinshipfamilies #Grandfamilies

• #Caregiving is about the relationship between the person who's caring for somebody and the person who's receiving that care. It often carries with it physical, financial, and emotional consequences – and the pandemic has only magnified these challenges. ACL.gov/CaregiverStrategy

• While family #caregiving is rewarding, it can also be challenging. When caregivers do not have the support they need, their health, well-being, and quality of life can suffer. Lost income due to family caregiving is estimated at $522 billion each year. ACL.gov/CaregiverStrategy

• Millions of older adults and people with disabilities would not be able to live in their communities without essential family #caregiving support and replacing it with paid services would cost an estimated $470 billion per year. Read more: ACL.gov/CaregiverStrategy