"Advanced Illness and End-Of-Life Care" - Lucy Larner
In 2011, 2.3 million caregivers in the US supported 900,000 older adults in their last year of life. The vast majority of caregivers were unpaid family or friends. Katherine Ornstein, PhD, assistant professor of geriatrics and palliative medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and coauthors used the National Health and Aging Trends study and its linked National Study of Caregiving to find that older adults at the end of life received almost twice as many hours of help per week: 61.3 hours versus 35.5 hours for older adults not at the end of life. Compared to other caregivers, end-of-life caregivers were significantly more likely to report physical difficulty related to giving care and having no time for themselves. To meet the increasing need for end-of-life care as the population ages, the authors said that unpaid family caregivers must receive expanded access to supportive services and greater recognition.
- Katherine Ornstein, PhD, Assistant Professor, Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai