http://goo.gl/Am7t7r
Since the 1920s, medical breakthroughs in prevention and treatment have allowed people to live longer and longer every decade. However, in the 1910s and ’20s there were no antibiotics, and no effective treatments for conditions such as high blood pressure, heart disease or cancer. In addition, there was no Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid to help protect elders from the health effects of poverty. Many more elderly parents lived with their children than they do now, but those parents, for the most part, did not linger for years with chronic conditions. Declines were generally swift. Most adult children in their 50s did not have parents who were still alive.
In the 1920s, family members also lived closer together than they do now, and families were larger, so caregiving duties could be shared. As social worker Lisa Kendall points out in a blog post, families of extended generations often had “sick rooms” in the back of their homes where they could work together to care for ill or dying relatives. Certainly, fewer family members found themselves providing hands-on care 24 hours a day all by themselves as they do now.
I’m glad to see that in July Congresswoman Nita M. Lowey (D-Westchester/Rockland) introduced in the House of Representatives what she is calling the “Social Security Caregiver Credit Act.” This Social Security credit would apply to family caregivers who provide unpaid care at least 80 hours a month to a dependent relative who needs supervision or assistance to perform activities of daily living (bathing, dressing, eating, toileting and transferring from a bed or chair). The caregiver would be credited with having earned a certain percentage of the income they would have earned if they had not left their paid work to provide long-term care.