OWLs Report: More Kinds of Life Support

For our moms, sisters and daughters:

According to the 2006 Older Women's League (a/k/a OWLs) report on women and long-term care, "about two-thirds of the 80,000 people living in assisted care residences nationwide are women. A touching commentary on Women's E-News points out the growing need to create a network, a community of medical and social programs that truly supports our elderly; that there are millions of seniors, mostly women, who don't need institutional care yet still need assistance.

At a palliative care case conference I attended recently, I found out that it is the eldest daughter who is the one who usually provides the most care (emotional, physical, and financial) for frail and aging parents -- the burden clearly falls upon women and we, as a society, need to step up to the plate and recognize that it is a burden we should all be sharing.