Broadcast Retirement Network’s Jeffrey Snyder discusses the rising stress levels of America’s paid and unpaid caregivers with Purdue University’s Laura Monetnovo.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Joining me now is Dr. Laura Montenovo of Purdue University. Dr. Montenovo, it’s so great to see you. Thanks for joining us on the program this morning.
Laura Montenovo, PhD., Purdue University
Thanks for having me, Jeff.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
I really appreciate it and you’ve done a lot of research in the area of caregiving. Let me just ask you a baseline question and we can kind of get into the research. How are America’s caregivers doing?
Laura Montenovo, PhD., Purdue University
I think America’s caregivers are facing new challenges. They were put in a different trajectory in the last few decades and especially after the pandemic. So overall there’s a big variation in what areas of the U.S. are handling the caregiving crisis, better or worse, but overall it’s quite common to have a mismatch between the demand of caregiving and the supply of caregiving, which tends to put pressure and some stress on the caregivers of the United States. And I’m happy to take more questions in detail. I’m just happy to take more detailed questions about this.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Sure, no, this is great. Let me follow up with that and you’re not under an interrogation, so I’m just asking you questions. I don’t want you to feel like I’m interrogating you, but are caregivers able to balance their responsibilities as caregivers with work?
It seems to me that would be very difficult to do.
Laura Montenovo, PhD., Purdue University
Yes, so as part of our research, I think it’s important to distinguish the informal caregivers, right? Informal caregivers are those that work in caregiving centers, so it’s basically their actual job to provide care. Informal caregivers are very common in the U.S. and in other parts of the world, and are those that are basically, they base their caregiving on family relationships, and they tend to have jobs outside of caregiving, and then they provide informal caregiving. For them, the impact on labor market outcomes is very strong, right? So they have a harder time working, their hours worked are lower, and so are their wages. They tend to rely on public assistance program more, and they tend to be more stressed because they have formal and informal duties.
Of course, the stress is stronger based on some of their individual characteristics, right? Are they single parents? Is their job, you know, a rural job?
They have to travel far to go to work. Are they low-income households? So these are all things that play a role into shaping their labor and health outcomes, but of course, there is a struggle to balance their work duties.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Are there certain areas of the country, of the U.S., that are doing better than others, you know, either, you know, regionally, states, cities? Are some doing better than others? And if so, why?
Laura Montenovo, PhD., Purdue University
So overall, I think the biggest, the strongest point about this is that urban areas tend to manage caregiving stress better than rural or suburban areas. So this has been a fact that’s established in the literature. Why is that the case?
Well, first and foremost, there’s been a migration out away from rural areas, and usually people who migrate are those that are active workers, and they leave those that are more likely to need care behind. And so there’s basically a change in the demographic structure that plays a role. Usually there’s lower, there’s a lower activity to shaping information about what programs are available, how to access them.
A lot of a bigger, a big reason why there’s a problem in rural areas is it’s just harder to spread information. You know, broadband is not everywhere. And so people might have a harder time, or, you know, even financial resources to access centres.
When we look at the map of the United States, we can see that, so we actually did some work where we compare 2013 to 2023. And we see some enhancement in caring stress, meaning decreasing stress, very much in states on the Atlantic coast of the US. And when we look at the western part, we saw improvements in Utah, and the coastal areas, also of the of the United States on the west side.
We have seen an increase in stress in some areas of Illinois, North Dakota, and the upper Michigan state and the upstate New York.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
So it seems that the stress seems to tie back to the services available within the particular community. Are there are there ways to improve, to lower the stress and improve the some of the services that are being delivered to caregivers? I mean, you know, in areas where geographically, they may not be doing as well.
Laura Montenovo, PhD., Purdue University
Yeah, so another quite established point in research is that a one solution fit all when it comes to caregiving stress is probably not an adequate response. So much of the research suggests that policymakers really look at, you know, the local area, the county, the community, and really target the interventions based on the differences of that community with respect to others. So, you know, when we look at what interventions we can consider, I think, spreading information, making access easier, a big reason, a big reason why people don’t participate in programs is they don’t quite know how to access them.
Maybe they’re too complicated or burdensome to understand. When when we think about, you know, funding, that’s obviously a massive part, right? So funding programs, funding centers, and we’re talking both about children and the elderly, because a big a big reason why the caregiving stress increase is an increasing need for care of the elderly.
And so funding is a big, a big part of it. But we’re talking about more funding of smaller programs, right? Bigger programs tend to, people don’t quite understand what they provide sometimes, because they’re hard to understand for many people, right?
And so that’s one important fact. The other thing that we can talk about is remote work. So, you know, the pandemic, of course, increased the prevalence of remote work.
Now, of course, there’s a little bit of a return to in person. During those years, you know, informal workers were a lot more flexible to provide informal care, which a lot of the times is last minute, right? And sometimes it’s, we know we need to provide informal care on a daily basis, but some other times, that’s not the case.
However, you know, remote work can also increase the stress on caregivers, because now they have both duties right in front of them. And it’s really hard to manage that. So even in that case, it’s a little bit of a slippery slope, you know, to give policy suggestions.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Well, but I think the research does kind of help people kind of understand the policymakers really, really understand what the stresses are and what they potentially could do. But it sounds like, doctor, that there’s a need for a lot of education when it comes to the programs that already exist. Dr. Montenovo, we’re going to have to leave it there. So great to see you. Excellent research. And look, we look forward to having you back on the program again very soon.
Laura Montenovo, PhD., Purdue University
Thank you so much, Jeff, and have everybody a great day.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Well, thanks for watching. And don’t forget, we’re back again tomorrow morning with another great expert and another great topic. You can tune in right here Monday through Sunday at 7.30am Eastern Time. And don’t forget to subscribe to our daily newsletter, The Morning Pulse for all the news in one place delivered directly to your email box. Check it out at our website.