Abstract
Family caregivers have played a significant role in our society since the beginning of time. Each year, the demand for caregiving affects millions of American families from all socioeconomic, ethnic, and educational backgrounds . Today, family caregivers play an essential role in our system of care by providing a significant proportion of our health and long-term care for the chronically ill, disabled, and aging . Feinberg et al. (Valuing the invaluable: 2011 update—the growing contributions and costs of family caregiving, http://assets.aarp.org/rgcenter/ppi/ltc/i51-caregiving.pdf, 2011) estimated that the economic value of services provided by family caregivers was US$ 450 billion in 2009.
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Elmore, D. (2014). The Impact of Caregiving on Physical and Mental Health: Implications for Research, Practice, Education, and Policy. In: Talley, R., Fricchione, G., Druss, B. (eds) The Challenges of Mental Health Caregiving. Caregiving: Research • Practice • Policy. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8791-3_2
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