CARE GIVING IN THE US

Care-giver is a person who devotes his/her time attending to an old person suffering from a chronic illness. Usually, this person would be the relative or a friend of the care-giver and many of these services are voluntary, done free of charge.  However, there are professional care-givers as well who are referred to as Personal Care Assistant/Attendant. These people look after the mentally ill or handicapped individuals, mostly who are old and perform tasks like contacting medical personnel on the patient’s behalf, escorting them on hospital trips, help them get cleaned up and dressed up and perform household chores like cooking and gardening.

Care-giving, both as a profession and an unpaid service, is important for western countries, especially the United States of America. As compared to the Asian and the third-world nations, USA and European countries have a large percentage of elder people in their demography owing to the loose family system and good health care facilities, which enable people to live long. If the ill ones in this portion of the population are not looked upon, this would have drastic social and economic consequences. It is not possible to shift all these patients in old age homes where the resources of the country will be used up to provide 24/7 care.

Care-giving is not an easy task.  One has to give up his/her social life and other recreational activities the whole time they are serving their patient. Besides, income may be low, and the person who is doing this voluntarily may find it hard to manage another well earning job. And the worst part is, sometimes the patient may not even recognize or remember you to appreciate your job. All these factors may draw a person to the conclusion that this job would be disliked by the Americans, or there would be a growing discontentment on this job. Yet, the facts reveal otherwise.

About 80% of the care-givers have responded that contrary to prior expectations, the job was “rewarding,” while 50% of the same group found it “extremely rewarding.” Even high social life was compromised, care-givers responded to surveys by explaining how they have developed bonds with their clients.  Care-giving stretches to all areas of the American society include the ethnic minorities as well. All these efforts have lead to services that would be worth billions of dollars more than what the federal government provides at best!