Nation of Care Bears Provide Unpaid Childcare, Aged-Care Support
It’s
official. We Australians really are a nation of care bears. Consider
the evidence from the census. There are about 17 million Australians
aged 15 and over, of whom 3.6 million reported in the census that
they volunteered for an organisation or group over the previous 12
months.
About
5.2 million reported they provided unpaid childcare during the two
weeks before the census, including 1.3 million who did so for
children other than their own. And 2.1 million Aussies said that over
the previous two weeks they provided unpaid care for family members
or others because of a disability, long-term illness or problems
associated with old age.
Whichever
way you look at these numbers, this is a large caring, volunteering,
giving community in a nation of 24 million.
These
“caring communities” are not mutually exclusive, which means that
people who care for others might also (in fact, probably also)
volunteer. Even so it seems reasonable to suggest that no fewer than
five million adults volunteer and/or provide care for children other
than their own. This is about one adult in five. Which raises the
question: who are this nation’s care bears?
Unpaid
care for children other than your own is largely the preserve of
grandparents. The time in the life cycle when Australians are most
inclined to offer unpaid childcare fits into a window that extends
between the late 50s and the mid-70s.
Share
of the population needing help with core
activities by age and sex
The
peak is 67, when 19 per cent of the population reports providing
unpaid childcare; at 38, on the other hand, the proportion caring for
other people’s children is less than 3 per cent.
Baby
boomers sit squarely within the grandparent unpaid-childcare window.
Those not yet in their late 50s are unlikely to have children that
have reproduced. Those beyond their mid-70s tend to have
grandchildren who no longer require minding. The childminding
lifespan of a grandparent is therefore 18 years, from 58 to 75, which
fits neatly with a scaling back of work obligations.
This
insight raises the issue of the provision of intergenerational
support. In fast-growing migrant communities such as Sydney, the
proportion of the population providing unpaid childcare support is
less (6.5 per cent) than in slow-growing stable communities such as
Adelaide (8.5 per cent).
Similarly
in the highly transitory city of Darwin, for example, barely 6 per
cent of the population provides unpaid childcare support. Young
parents are on their own in Darwin, whereas in Adelaide nana and
grandpa are likely to be on hand to lend a hand.
These
trends in childcare support across the life cycle have given rise to
a relatively new cultural phenomenon called the “tag-along
grandparent”. Across Australia almost a half million 60-somethings
provide unpaid childcare support. Among them the vast majority —
445,000, or 19 per cent of all 60 to 69-year-olds — provided care
to children other than their own, most likely in their role as
grandparents.
But
in outer suburban estates such as Melbourne’s Point Cook and
Keilor, more than 30 per cent of 60 to 69-year-old residents cared
for children other than their own. A similar trend can be seen in
Sydney’s Baulkham Hills (28 per cent) and on Perth’s north coast
between Trigg and Sorrento (29 per cent).
Here’s
a case of 30-somethings moving to a suburban estate and having
children, and of grandparents moving to a nearby property. Tag-along
grandparents inject age diversity into a suburb and enable young
parents to work full-time to pay the mortgage.
Young
families might require a McMansion but there’s probably also a
market for an efficient townhouse nearby to accommodate a
downshifting tag-along grandparent.
And
then there are those who provide unpaid care to family members and
others who have difficulty with core activities. This caring
community of 2.1 million adults is growing at a rate of 50,000 each
year.
The
requirement for, or the propensity of, Australians to deliver unpaid
support to others peaks at 18 per cent of the population at the age
of 58. Close to one in five 58-year-olds provide unpaid support, most
likely for an elderly family member. This support is more commonly
provided by women.
Here
is the blunt reality of the care-giving community in Australia. Baby
boomers in their late 50s are now caring for their elderly parents
(in their late 80s or early 90s) and are doing so in an unpaid
capacity.
By
the time boomers make it into their 60s their parents are likely to
have died off, freeing up time. But this is also the time when their
own children are procreating and need help in the form of (free)
childminding support.
More
than 10 per cent of the population in every year of the life cycle
beyond the age of 60 provides unpaid care for someone with a core
disability, either through illness or old age. This most likely
starts off as care for elderly parents but by the 70s it probably
transitions to support for an older partner.
By
the age of 60 about 6 per cent of the population requires some level
of support; by 75 this proportion is 14 per cent; by 85 it is 38 per
cent. The oldest baby boomers are now 71, with the “meat” of the
cohort now in their mid-60s.
By
the late 2020s baby boomers will enter that stage of the life cycle
where they require support with core activities. Strong and resilient
families in well-planned multi-generational communities reduce the
burden on public support systems. The 2.1 million intergenerational
unpaid care providers today may need to be closer to four million by
2030.
Excluding
parents of young children who are obliged to provide care for their
own, there are care bear hotspots across the life cycle. These
include 58-year olds looking after their frail and dying parents and
67-year olds looking after their 30-something children’s kids.
Both
of these cohorts are today dominated by baby boomers.
And
if baby boomers aren’t caring for their parents or for their
grandchildren, or working, then they tend to be volunteering, which
also peaks in the 60s.
The
circle of life means that everyone generally gets a turn at household
formation, at raising kids, at working full-time and at caring for
others. Fortunately the sheer scale of the boomer cohort means that
the care bear population aged in the late 50s to late 60s is growing
rapidly.
But
eventually the caring responsibility will transition to the
millennial children of the baby boomer generation.
Everyone
in our engaged and socially cohesive society gets a turn at caring
and at being cared for. In some respects it could be said that giving
care now sets up a social contract with the next generation, which
undertakes to care and to give back later in life.
Or
at least that is the hope and the expectation inherent in the social
contract between today’s care-bear boomers and their millennial
children.
List
of Paid Top Senior & Elderly Care Services All
Over the World:
1.
India:
Company
Name: Anvayaa Kincare Pvt Ltd
Contact
Details:
Address
Anvayaa Kincare Pvt. Ltd.
#1-102/17
& 18, 1st floor, Meghana Towers,
Ayyappa
Society Road, Madhapur
Hyderabad:
500 081
Phoneno:
+91 7288 818181 / 939 ANVAYAA
Website: http://anvayaa.com/
2.
Australia:
Company
Name: Australian Multicultural Community Services
Conatct
Details:
Melbourne
Office:
Suite
111/ 44-56 Hampstead Rd,
Maidstone
Melbourne, VIC 3012
Telephone:
(03) 9689 9170 Fax: (03) 9687 7446
3.
United Arab Emirates
Company
Name:
Enayati
Home Health Care
Conatct
Details:
103
Al Moosa Tower 2 Sheikh Zayed Road,
Dubai
United Arab Emirates
PO
Box 53280
Office
Phone no:
+971 4 338 9355
4.
Canada
Company
Name: Elderly Care
Conatct
Details:
1100 – 119 Spadina Ave
Toronto,
ON
M5V
2L1
Comments
Post a Comment