2014 AARP Caregiving Survey: Opinions and Experiences of Delaware Residents Age 35 and Older

Over three-quarters (76%) of Delawareans age 35 and older say they want to receive care for themselves or their loved ones at home with caregiver assistance when the basic tasks of life become more difficult due to aging or illness.  

About half (45%) of Delawareans age 35 and older are currently providing or have provided unpaid care to an adult loved one who is ill, frail, elderly or has a physical or mental disability.

• More than four in five of these caregivers are helping or have helped with shopping (86%), household chores (86%) or transportation (82%).  
• At least seven in ten are helping or have helped with more complex tasks like medication management (74%) and other nursing and medical tasks (69%).

Nearly half (44%) of Delawareans age 35 and older say it is likely that they will provide unpaid care to an adult loved one in the next five years. 

The vast majority of Delawareans age 35 and older supports proposals to help family caregivers both at home and on the job:

• 92% support having affordable options for paid help from a home health aide so family caregivers can take a break from caregiving duties.
• 84% support requiring employers to provide a limited amount of unpaid leave and 80% supporting require employers to provide some paid leave to employees for caregiving purposes.  

A large majority of Delawareans age 35 and older strongly supports proposals that would help family caregivers when their loved ones go into hospitals or rehabilitation facilities:

• Nearly all support requiring hospitals or rehabs to explain and demonstrate medical tasks family caregivers will need to perform after the patient returns home (95%) and keep family caregivers informed of medical decisions regarding the patient (92%).
• 82% support requiring hospitals to record the family caregiver’s information in the patient’s medical record.

The 2014 AARP Survey of Delaware Residents Age 35+ on Caregiving was conducted through telephone interviews with a sample of 700 respondents ages 35 and older drawn at random from Delaware. The interviews were conducted in English by Precision Opinion, Inc. from April 3rd through April 8th, 2014. The results from the study were weighted by age and gender. For more information, contact Joanne Binette at jbinette@aarp.org.