In a recent publication from Pediatrics: Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics entitled Family-Provided Health Care for Children with Special Health Care Needs (CSHCN) statistics and findings were released concerning the time spent and cost of family-provided health care for CSHCN.
The following report displays the statistics and information as relayed within the article. For more information, download a copy of this publication.
Found within this publication were four effects of time and cost of Family-Provided Health Care for CSHCN:
- “CSHCN have 3 times the health care expenditures, including out-of-pocket costs, of other children. “
- “Caregiving can take a physical, psychological, and financial toll and is associated with increased stress, morbidity, and mortality.”
- “Parents of CSHCN are more likely to experience poorer physical and emotional health that patents of other children.”
- “Caregiving families also experience financial problems, reduce work hours, and stop work altogether at higher rates than families with that do not provide health care to CSHCN, and financial problems and work loss tend to increase with the severity of the child’s condition.”
What can be done to support families caring for a child with special health care needs?
Some suggestions were:
- Work schedule flexibility.
- Time-banking of shared leave among employees.
- Paid family leave programs.
What suggestions would you add to this list?
Romley, J. A., Shah, A. K., Chung, P. J., Elliott, M. N., Vestal, K. D., & Schuster, M. A. (2016). Family-Provided Health Care for Children With Special Health Care Needs. Pediatrics,139(1). doi:10.1542/peds.2016-1287
This MFLN-Military Caregiving concentration blog post was published on January 27, 2017.
