30% of Israelis provide care to elderly

Providingprimary or secondary care to elderly or sick relatives or friends canbe an extremely heavy social, physical and emotional burden, accordingto the results of a Central Bureau of Statistics survey examining therole of unpaid caregivers in our society.  The study, published Monday, found that 30 percent of Israel’sadult population was directly involved in the daily care of an elderlyor sick relative or friend, and focused on the role of ordinary peoplewho act as caregivers outside the professional or voluntary frameworks.More than 46% of those who reported caring for someone else said thetask was emotionally, physically and socially stressful.  However, the researchers, who used a sample of 7,500 peopleover the age of 20, also discovered that the overwhelming majority ofthese unpaid caregivers drew great satisfaction from the help they weregiving: 89% said that caring for another person, either family orfriend, instilled within them a sense of pride, and 90% said they feltgreatly appreciated by the person they were caring for. In addition,90% said they believed the assistance they were providing was of asatisfactory standard.  Only 6% said they had sought out professional assistance in coping with the hardships of caring for another person.

Source:  Jerusalem Post, http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1189411421982&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull