10.17.07
Depression Among Elder Care Workers
Care workers who work at assisted living facilities and elder care and memory care facilities have the highest rate of depression in comparison to all other jobs in a recent study. Among a care workers duties is to change diapers, serve the elderly food, get them in and out of bed, give them showers, and perform hazardous medical duties with limited support and information. Women were considered more likely to have a major bout of depression then men, and younger workers were more likely to have a higher rate of depression then their older coworkers.
Just about 11 percent of personal care workers had reported depression lasting two weeks or longer.
During these depression episodes there is loss of pleasure and interest in general. Quite often there is also problems with sleep, eating, energy, concentration and self-image.
This is a reliable government survey that tracked elder care workers from 2004 - 2006. The agency that performed the study was the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which registers lifetime and past-year depression bouts.
Depression leads to $30 billion to $44 billion in lost productivity annually and should be a major consideration when deciding how to treat and compensate elder care workers. The study was recently released at http://oas.samhsa.gov.
