Sandwich between

It seem that as I watch my parents and their friends get older it has become very obvious to me that they are not in the physical condition that they once were and that they are becoming physically challenged and they need assistance, some need assistance to get around and others need it to just get them through their every day routine.  Some of my parents’ friends have had heart attacks, strokes, have developed diseases like Parkinson’s or dementia.  I know just in my own case of having to step in to help my own parents  that there are times that I want to sit down and cry but I can’t for fear that I will not be able to do what I have to in order to get through the day.  These health issues have created a new set of social issues around adult children having to not only taking care of their own children but also ageing parents thus becoming the Sandwich Generation.  According to Williams (2005) with more women in the work force creating more stress for women who take on the role of caregiver.  According to Pinquart (2006) the increase in stress and stressors for women is compounded by the understanding that they have fewer resources then men and that their psychological and physical health are affected, with some consideration that there ma be some gender specific factors involved.

  As ageing parents are becoming less able to care for themselves adult children are finding that they are having to step in and help their parents or in-laws a job that is falling more and more to female members of the family with in the sandwich generation (Williams, 2005). In the Province of Manitoba we have home care and those that I know that are receiving this aid from this program have said that there are so many restrictions as to what home care workers can do and not do , that there are questions of home cares ability to carry out the services that are needed. This to then added to the responsibilities that adult children have with having to meet more of the elderly family member’s needs.

The question then is what does being a part of the sandwich generation have to do with women's issues and physical disabilities? If one looks at what Statistics Canada Published (2005) that there were about 2.6 Million people between the ages of 45 to 65 who have dependent children under the age of 25, of that number there are now approximately 27% that belong to the sandwich generation that are provided some form of care. 21% of the sandwich generation is caring for two seniors and about 5% are caring for more then three.  According to Williams this kind of scenario is very stressful making it very difficult for the sandwich generation to “balance work and family”.  This kind of stress creates a whole new set of problems for the sandwich generation, causing this generation to be at work about 65% of the time for varying reasons such as their own physical health being affected because of stress, having to care of the senior’s needs, forcing them sometimes in to having to drop hours and lost wages which intern creates even more stress  further affecting their ability to do their jobs. This has an additional issue for the sandwich generation in that it will affect their later income when they retire for some pensions are based upon how much one pays in to the plan and/or how much time one has worked in their last 5 yrs leading up to retirement.  There is a calculation that is followed and part of the calculation is based upon income earned and the number of hours worked.  So then their retirement income is going to be less then those that were not affected by being sandwiched (Chappell, 2010).  

Williams points out that not only are women more likely to take care of ageing (physically challenged) family members then men, women also spend more time caring for an older person approximately 29 hrs a month, with 79% of women provide personal care.  Men on the other hand spend 13 hrs. a month in providing care and it is generally doing basic outside home maintenance and assisting in transportation. It seems to me that because women as members of the sandwich generation are more likely to be caregivers and that over time they are going to be paying both in terms of their financial as well as their physical health.  It is time to recognise that as we age and trust me even though we want to stay young that is not life. When I was 20 life was only just beginning all I had to take care of was myself and I had no aches or pains, now in my mid 40’s I have a young child to care for and my parents are starting to require more and more help because of their physical health, if I sleep the wrong way I have a kink in my neck, if I move the wrong way there goes my back but this is life.  And to be honest there are times that I find it very difficult to stand back and find balance something that is very important in maintaining my own mental and physical health.  

There are things that I see being done by family members for their elderly that really should be done by professional caregivers and what is out there is so inadequate in my opinion that it is just a sad state of affairs.  This country was built by our parents, grand parents and in some cases families go back several generations and they opened up this country.  It is disheartening to be left with the feeling that capitalism and its greed is alive and well in our society ( Mullaly) and that there is no feeling of wanting to or having the need to pay something back to these people.  I know that over time this is not going to be the only group that does not get any thank you.  Women of the sandwich generation that stepped up to the plate and did what they had to will not be either.

The reason that I wrote this about disabilities with in old age and women as sandwich generation care gives is that I believe that as the baby boomers age and generation X has to step up to the plate something is going to have to be done for I do not feel that there well be enough adult children in the near future that are going to be able to take care of their ageing parents.  As globalisation grows the nature of how one works and the hours one has to put in, I am not sure if they are going to be able to provide the assistance that will be needed.  Unless there is legislation put in to place in terms of employment standards addressing this issue that the sandwich generation faces particularly women, there are going to be  more difficult times of it as it is women are the ones that are paying the price more so then men.  I do not see the capitalist market doing anything voluntarily unless they have to do this.

Lisa

Reference:

Chappell, R. (2010). The nature of Canadian social welfare.  Social welfare in Canadian Society.  Toronto: Nelson Education.

Mullaly, B. (2007). The New structural Social Work (3^rd ed.). Don Mills, Ontario, Oxford University Press.


Pinquart, M. and Sorensen, S., (2006). Gender differences in care giver stressors, social resources, and health: an updated meta-analysis.  Boston Journal of Gerentology: psychological sciences.  Vol. 61B,No.1, P33-45


Statistics Canada (2005). http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/040928/dq040928b-eng.htm. 

Williams, Cara. Summer 2005 .  The sandwich generation.  Canadian Social Trends.