We typically think of family caregivers as women in the Baby Boomer generation, age late 40s to late 50s. But new information from AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving reveals that a full 10 percent of family caregivers are Millennials. That’s 10 million people!
The typical profile of this person is someone who is 27 years old, works part time, and has household income below the national medium.
Why this increase?
One reason is some Baby Boomers need a little help with older loved ones. And it seems Millennials are actually happy to help. Of course there are some circumstances where Millennials have had to step up for the care of their own parents. After all, diseases like early onset Alzheimer’s are being diagnosed more frequently. But for the most part, Millennials are helping Boomers take care of what is left of the Greatest Generation and perhaps the first wave of Boomers.
Millennials who are supposed to be at a stage of life where they are absorbed in their own careers and families. Often they are balancing a career, getting advanced degrees, caregiving and raising children, making them some of the youngest to handle sandwich generation stress. This makes caregiver Millennials a unique group. Of those 10 million Millennial caregivers, there is an equal split between men and women. That’s a little different than the typical caregiver demographic, which skews toward women. But Millennials attitudes toward masculinity have changed and men are more likely to see themselves as nurturers, too. For additional data on millennial caregivers, see this article.
Technology Millennials Use
The genus™ App is truly something Millennials gratefully grasp onto. They grew up with technology and embrace the opportunity to use it to provide the best care possible for their loved ones. With so many Millennials having to work far from where their parents live, having a tool like the genus™ App allows them to fulfill their career goals while attending to family responsibilities. They are thrilled to have a platform that coordinates outside help, visits, medical information, and valuable resources, all ready to be accessed at the touch of a button.
ith several types of safety: physical, emotional, financial, and spiritual. We often do a stellar job of taking care of their physical needs, but what about their emotional needs?
It can be so overwhelming deciding what kind of outside help to hire for your aging loved one. Who should you hire? How do you find them? Are they qualified? Can they be trusted to care for your parent? What questions should you ask? What is the cost? How do I find the best care possible for my parent?
It’s late at night, you feel like you need some support, you don’t feel like calling the 24/7 Alzheimer’s hotline, but you need some sort of boost in the arm as you try to figure out the best way to care for your loved one with memory issues. 
One of the most frustrating things to deal with when caring for an aging parent is the many health complications that arise as one ages. Medical safety is of key concern. Many family member also acting as caregivers have not had a great deal of experience dealing with doctors and various medical safety issues. There are many questions that arise, making the whole caring experience a bit overwhelming without the proper information.
Most people want to be independent and do not want to be a burden on the family, hesitating to ask us for the help they need. When dealing with a family member who still has fairly strong cognitive abilities, we can only know where to provide help if we can teach our loved one to ask for help. Of course we will see some obvious areas where help is needed, but in order to provide the best possible care, we need him/her to be open with us.