Family Caregiving of Older Persons in South Africa: Fact Sheet

<p dir="ltr">The Family Caregiving of Older Persons in South Africa factsheet provides evidence on how family care happens as well as the costs and challenges of family care for both older persons, caregivers, families and society. Family caregiving of older persons is at the heart of elder care policy, but it is poorly understood and often just assumed. In this factsheet we present the key findings based on working with 100 older persons and family caregivers across three provinces in South Africa. The key findings show that for the majority of older persons, family care is largely co-residential care provided by daughters who often leave work to care for older persons. Caregivers are depleted due to the complexity of elder care as well as balancing it with their competing work and care responsibilities. The findings show that disabling contexts impact the level of care needed and the amount of care work required. The evidence shows that in financially constrained households, older persons and caregivers adopt strategies to cope but the strategies are depleting in many ways, they are stressful, expensive, unhealthy, and not sustainable. We present three key recommendations for supporting family care of older persons.</p>