2014 AARP Kansas Caregiving Study Briefs

Kansas registered voters age 45 and older strongly support proposals to help family caregivers navigate the health care system on behalf of their loved ones. Specifically, respondents support requiring hospitals and health care facilities to explain and demonstrate medical and nursing tasks that family caregivers will need to perform after the patient returns home; keeping a family caregiver informed of major decisions, like transferring or discharging the patient; and recording the name of a patient’s family caregiver in the medical record upon admission.

Key findings include:

• Most (75%) Kansas registered voters age 45 and older believe that being cared for at home with caregiver assistance is the ideal situation when the basic tasks of life become more difficult due to aging or illness.
• Most Kansas caregivers are helping or have helped their loved ones with shopping (88%), transportation (88%), household chores (84%), meal preparation (80%), as well as more complex care like managing medications (70%) and other nursing and medical tasks (70%).
• These caregivers believe it is important to be able to provide care so that their loved ones can keep living independently in their own home and to have more caregiver resources and training that allows family caregivers to continue to provide in-home care.

AARP Kansas commissioned a telephone survey of 800 Kansas registered voters age 45 and older to learn about their experiences with family caregiving, as well as their opinions on proposals to support family caregivers in the state.  This report highlights results from registered voters interviewed between November 12 and November 20, 2014.  The data in this report has been weighted by age, gender and geographic county of residence to reflect the Kansas population of registered voters age 45 and older.  For more information, contact Aisha Bonner at abonner@aarp.org.