In May 2020, the National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC) and the AARP published a Fact Sheet titled The “Typical” African-American Caregiver, based on research they jointly conducted for the year’s report on caregiving in the U.S. According to that research, African Americans often have more burdensome caregiving situations than their non-Hispanic white or Asian caregiver counterparts, typically caring for a parent, spouse, or “grandparent who is 64.9 years old and has 1.7 conditions; usually a long-term physical condition.”
Yet, researchers found, African Americans cope better with caregiving than their non-Black counterparts.
While it can be fulfilling and gratifying, family caregiving is practically a full-time job that typically goes unpaid. Caregivers provide an estimated $470 billion in free labor each year, according to the NAC-AARP 2020 report. At the time of the report, more than one in five Americans, or 21.3 percent, were caregivers, having provided care to an adult or child with special needs at some time in the past 12 months.
African-American caregivers tend to be younger, at 47.7 years old on average; are often unmarried; and frequently have to balance an average 37.5 hours of caregiving per week with full-time jobs. The negative financial fallout from this last—as a result of going in late, leaving early, and/or taking time off—can be substantial for households typically with lower incomes than those of non-Hispanic white and Asian caregivers. About half the time the recipient lives in the African American caregiver’s home, more commonly than non-Hispanic whites.
Despite the more burdensome situations African Americans caregivers face, research has found they cope better with caregiving than white caregivers. Key to this, researchers contend, are the culture and values in African American communities whereby the primary caregiver can count on immediate and extended family members, fellow church congregants, and other community members to look out for the caregiving recipient.
Today, says the NAC, there are 53 million family caregivers with a pressing need for support at national and state-level. To that end, the alliance in June announced the launch of the Caregiver Nation Network to inform state and federal policy solutions to “our nation’s care crisis.” the initiative consists of leaders representing caregiver coalitions in Arizona, California, Hawaii, Illinois, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin.
“Investing in family caregivers is investing in our nation’s future,” said Jason Resendez, NAC president and CEO, on announcing the launch of the network.
The hope is that African Americans will benefit from the intended investment in proportion to their more burdensome caregiving situations.
