Introduction: Family Caregiving in the New Normal

Family caregiving is central to the long-term care system of the United States. Families provide the majority of assistance to older Americans in need. Although this care is largely unpaid, estimates of how much it would cost to pay for a healthcare provider to give similar amounts of care far exceed that of more commonly recognized sources of long-term care, such as home health services or nursing homes. While there is a large body of research on the current state of family caregiving in the United States, few studies have attempted to grapple with the future of family caregiving as our society stands on the precipice of change: some of it was decades in the making, and some of it was spurred by the recent economic downturn (the Great Recession) that began in 2008, from which we are still recovering. We believe that it is important to lay out a "road map" of the challenges (demographic, economic, health trends, and policy) and possible solutions to help individuals, family members, communities, and we as a society to better understand how to meet the needs of caregiving families. With the many disruptive and converging social, political, economic, and technological trends now emerging, how can we best support family caregivers as they provide help to their older relatives now and in the future? This introduction addresses all these points.