Survey of Social Workers,
Sandwich Generation Women Garners Major Media Attention

"Sandwich Generation Faces Massive Stress in Caring for Aging Parents and Kids. Social Worker Study Finds Majority Ill-Prepared but say Help is Available."

This headline attracted media from all over the country, including Good Morning, America, to take notice of the good work that social workers do with sandwich generation women.

Good Morning, America featured sandwich generation women and social workers in a 5-minute segment about the issues that these women face and where they can go to get help. This story also appeared on the Good Morning, America Web site with a direct link to www.HelpStartsHere.org.

NASW partnered with the New York Academy of Medicine to survey social workers about their work with sandwich generation women. The key findings of this survey of 1,400 social workers about their clients were:

• Sandwich generation women are not prepared for many aspects of their aging relatives’ care.
• Two thirds of social workers say a majority of sandwich generation women underestimate the financial, emotional and physical toll of providing care for aging relatives.
• 47% say they hear from sandwich generation women that they delay getting help because they feel they should be able to shoulder care-giving responsibilities on their own.
• About 58% say that they “frequently” help sandwich generation clients manage daily life stress and feelings of depression and anxiety.

A smaller sample of sandwich generation women also participated in a journaling project where they were asked to answer questions and record their feelings for two weeks.
Of these women, nearly a quarter of them say they didn’t know who to ask for help with day-to-day caregiving responsibilities.

Other media outlets ran a story about the important role of social work with sandwich generation women, including:

• Hundreds of ABC affiliates across the country
• Lou Dobbs Radio
• Wisconsin Public Radio
• Minnesota Public Radio
• KMSS-TV (Fox in Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma).

These stellar media hits garnered an increase in traffic to both www.HelpStartsHere.org and searches on the Social Worker Finder.