Tyze partnered with Vision Critical to find out
Tyze was created based on the belief that our relationships with other people are vital to a good life. Family and friends are the heartbeat of most care situations. We wanted to find out more about how much time people have to help out and what they can do to pitch in with care. We partnered with Vision Critical, a Canadian global technology company that specializes in tools and services for marketing research and polling. The purpose was to examine how much time people spend doing care tasks, what kinds of care tasks they would be willing to help out with and how much time they have available to help out. A survey was sent out to participants in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.
What did we find?
People are available to help out, for longer than we thought. Overall, most survey participants reported having time to help out, with the majority of respondents in each country indicating that they have between 1 to 4 hours a week available to help out a family member or friend who was facing a care or health challenge. Twelve percent or less of participants in each country indicated that they did not have any time to help out.
Table 1: Responses to time spent or available per week to help out with care
|
|
Canada
|
US |
UK |
|
Average Hours spent per week caring (for those who are currently helping) |
8.3 hours (Average) (n=303) |
8.2 (Average) n=262 |
n/a |
|
Average hours available per week to help with caring (for those who are not currently helping) |
7.2 (Average)
(n=1207) |
7.7 (Average) (n=752) |
n/a |
|
I wouldn’t have any time available |
7% |
12% |
10% |
When asked to think about the different types of daily tasks that they could help a family member or friend out with, the top choices were shopping, medications, housekeeping, meal preparation, transportation and providing someone else with a short break from caring. These were the top 6 reported in each country, though the ranking varied across countries.
United States
50% Shopping, e.g., for groceries
41% Medications (e.g, picking them up)
39% Housekeeping (e.g, laundry and dishes)
38% Meal preparation
35% Transportation (e.g., to an appointment)
28% Providing someone else with a short break from caring for their relative or friend
United Kingdom
65% – Shopping, e.g., for groceries
46% – Housekeeping (e.g, laundry and dishes)
37% – Transportation (e.g., to an appointment)
37% – Medications (e.g, picking them up)
33% – Meal preparation
18% – Providing someone else with a short break from caring for their relative or friend
Canada
54% – shopping, e.g., for groceries
48% – transportation (e.g., to an appointment)
41% with housekeeping (e.g, laundry and dishes)
37% meal preparation
37% medications (e.g, picking them up)
31%: providing someone else with a short break from caring for their relative or friend
Why does this matter?
Family and friends reported they are willing to help out with things like meal preparation and transportation. These are the kinds of tasks that help keep people at home, where they want to be. And they are also the kinds of care activities that people report wanting help with when they are caring.
People who reported that they were not currently helping to care for someone, indicated having hours available each week to help out family & friends who are facing health and care challenges. We want to make it easier to match up help wanted with help available. But we also know, and have heard from our users that it is difficult to ask for help. How can we become better supporters to individuals and family and friends who are facing health or caregiving challenges? How can we create care situations where family members and friends truly share the care?
Developing better strategies for sharing the care amongst family, friends and paid care staff is core to shifting to a network model of care – the future of care and support. Tyze is committed to making it easier to receive and offer care and support. Stay tuned for some new feature updates that will do just that!
Recent Tyze blog posts also include tips for how to be a good supporter, requesting and offering rides and ideas for how to contribute to care, even when you live at a distance.