FAMS 1500 14 Aging Popluation Podcast

The demographic shift in the aging population is expected to happen in the mid-2030s, with older adults outnumbering children. People are living longer, which means they need care for longer, putting strain on the workforce. There will be a shortage of healthcare workers, affecting the quality of care and potentially leading to higher wages. The "sandwich generation" will face stress and conflict as they care for both their elderly parents and their own children. Marriages may struggle and divorces may increase due to the overwhelming responsibilities. The economy, healthcare system, and individuals will experience significant stress, but the situation may improve once the elderly population decreases. Hello, my name is Ashley McDonald, and welcome to my aging population podcast. So I'm going to be talking about the demographic shift, and I'm going to start out by kind of describing the demographic shift that's going to happen. So this is going to happen about the mid 2030s estimated. And so this is when there will be older adults, meaning 65 plus, are going to, or we're expecting them to outnumber children, children meaning age zero to 18. So what, what is this going to do? How is this going to affect the world as we know it, society as we know it? So something that is really important to know is that people are living longer, right? So they're living longer than they ever have before, which means they're retired for longer, they're elderly for longer, and they need care for longer, right? So it's probably going to require some people after the boomer generation to continue working past the estimated retirement age of 65. And that's going to put a lot of strain on those who are, they're getting older as well, but they still need to work because they have to plan for longer retirement. And they also might need to care for some other elderly aging adults as well. And then another thing that's going to happen is they're going to be elderly for longer, right? They're going to live longer, which means they're going to need care for longer, especially once they start to decline and start to need assistance with daily activities and just need to be watched a little more carefully. So this is going to do a couple things. First, this is going to require extra health care workers. And there's a little bit of problem with that. With all of these people leaving the workforce, there's not as many people in the workforce, meaning our working population will be spread much thinner. And there won't be as many people working in health care as we will need to be working in health care. And so the health care workers will be stretched very, very thin. They'll be trying to take care of so many patients, so many different things. And that's going to affect quite a few things. It's going to affect the ability for the elderly to get proper care. It's going to affect staffing and doctor's offices, staffing in hospitals, probably going to affect pay. We're going to need probably to pay doctors and nurses and other health care workers higher because they're needed. And they're needed now. But if there's going to be a shortage because there's just so many people to take care of and not enough people to take care of them, that's going to affect their wages. That's going to affect the economy and everything like that. Another thing that's going to happen is some people will take care of their aging parents, right? They won't put them in a facility. They won't need health care, at least right away. So what is that going to do? So it's going to cause more of a sandwich generation. And it's going to put a lot of stress on these children slash parents, right? Because they're taking care of their elderly parents for longer, right, because they're going to live longer. So they're taking care of them for longer, but then they're taking care of their children. And granted, we are not having children at the rate we used to. Families are getting much smaller. People are divorcing a lot more commonly. And our society surrounding marriage and children and families has shifted. But there still will be people taking care of both elderly parents and children at the same time. And this is going to cause some tension and some conflict with these individuals, because they're probably going to be a part of the workforce, right, the workforce that is going to be shortened and short-staffed and spread thin. But they're also going to be taking care of their elderly parents, their aging parents. And that comes with a lot of stress and responsibility. And they do need a lot of time and care and attention. And then you're going to be raising your children. And you're going to be wanting to make sure that you provide your children with the best care that you can give them, the stimulation, the love, the connection. And that's going to be difficult, because you're going to be working, probably, most likely. You're going to be taking care of your elderly parents. And then you're going to be taking care of your children. So where is the room for yourself and your spouse? So marriages are probably going to struggle. I think divorces will probably increase due to all of the stress that these people are trying to manage, which is incredibly difficult. And at some point, you might be taking care of two sets of elderly and aging parents. You might be taking care of your parents and your spouse's parents, or maybe your parents were divorced and they got remarried. So you're taking care of at least three to four adults without including your spouse's parents. So there is just going to be a lot of stress on the economy, on the health care force, on the sandwich generations, on the children, on the grandparents, because they're probably going to feel stressed about the situation as well, that they can't provide the help to their children and their grandchildren that they would have liked to. They might feel like a burden, which is not something you want your parents to feel typically. You usually want them to feel like you love them and care for them and doing this out of love and care. But they'll notice because even though people get older, it doesn't necessarily mean they lose their cognitive function. At some point, some people do, but they still can think and they're not stupid and they're aware. So I think there's going to be a lot of conflict, a lot of stress. But once the elderly generation starts to decrease a little bit, I think things will settle down and hopefully not become as stressful and we'll be able to bounce back from this demographic shift that is going to happen. And this was my podcast. Thank you so much.