Writer and founder of national online support group Caregiver Collective and herself a caregiver Jennifer N. Levin offers a comprehensive look at our current culture of care--with an emphasis on Millennial caregivers--providing a roadmap to solutions and an urgent call for policy change.
More than 10 million Millennials are caring for aging parents before they've been able to fully launch their own careers and consider starting their own families, and that's not including the incalculable numbers of people affected by long COVID. Yet no one is naming this problem, talking about how it feels, or offering resources to ease the pressure of Millennial caregiver burnout. Jennifer N. Levin was 32 when her father was diagnosed with a rare degenerative illness. As she struggled with few resources and little support, she created Caregiver Collective, a national online support group for Millennial caregivers. Now Levin brings the wisdom from her own experience and that of her support group to Why Us?, a comprehensive look at this generation's culture of care. Filled with the voices of caregivers, expert commentary and research, and a roadmap to the solutions that can begin helping people now as well as build the policies of the future, Why Us? addresses:
• The urgency of caregiving: With earlier (and better) detection of disease, along with a rise in chronic illness, the average age of a care recipient is younger than before--as is the average caregiver age.
• The financial costs: Millennials spend a higher percentage of their income on caregiving and carry unprecedented student loan debt, adding to fiscally devastating out-of-pocket costs for care.
• Ambiguous loss for caregivers: Caregiving can dictate caregivers' lifestyle choices; Millennial caregivers may grieve the lives they 'thought' they'd have.
• The impact of COVID and long COVID: We're in a period of fluctuation with flex and remote work, which makes work and caregiving more compatible. How can we make sure that working caregivers' needs are honored?
• Strategies for getting help on the individual level and in relation to policy.
We, as a culture and society, talk about caregiving broadly-it's something many of us may think, "not us" or "we'll figure that out later." But caregiving is an increasingly urgent crisis. Why Us? brings this crisis to the fore, illuminates the real stories and people who are most affected, underscores the need for shifts in policy and giving support where it is most needed, and sounds a clarion call for change. Jennifer N. Levin is the founder of Caregiver Collective, a Facebook group for Millennial and Gen X family caregivers to share resources, support, and experiences, and television and freelance writer. Her writing on cultural topics (including caregiving, mental health, and modern relationship issues between young adults and their parents) has appeared in the Washington Post, Berliner Zeitung (in English and with German translation), NJ.com, Thrive Global, LA Weekly (for which she was interviewed for KCRW Press Play), Refinery 29, and Bustle. Levin first wrote about her caregiving experience for Cosmopolitan, for which she's been a guest on multiple podcasts discussing how caregiving differs for the Millennial generation. She's been interviewed on the topic by the Washington Post, Vox, and more, and was also featured by PBS NewsHour. Levin lives in Berlin, Germany.
