Familial Baby Boomer Caregivers

Subculture: Camera Journal

photos

So, the quality of most of the photos we got back from the camera journal were not the best quality. But this isn't really a surprise, and it's fine they came out like this. The real gem of this research collection method was the descriptions that our interviewee filled out for us.
Not only did she help describe some of the more difficult-to-see pictures, but she gave us some insight into her feelings towards the objects. She stressed her dependence on some of the things pictured, like the therapist and the nurse. She also took a lot of pictures of different part of her home. While she did this to show the different contraptions she had to use from day to day, to us, this painted a bigger picture to us, showing us that they sometimes have to modify or renovate their whole homes so it is compatible with the person they are caring for.
She also revealed some of the frustrations that she had within some of the pictures she took, which is something she didn't really discuss the first time we interviewed her. She talked about how the wheelchair was a lot more trouble that it might seem as first, from the most obvious inconveniences to the smallest things like the fact that she couldn't have rugs or carpet (otherwise the chair would snag).

Subculture: Initial Book Designs

Here are some of the pages I've been working on as part of the subculture book. I've already begun to mess around with these new colors (not partner-approved yet). What's most difficult so far is just creating copy to supplement the information we have gathered. One goal of making this book is to make sure we get as much of the juicy information we gathered on these pages.

It's still lacking it's "something special" though. We will be brainstorming on this tomorrow.

Subculture: Interviews

Dianne–wife and caregiver to her brain damaged husband
Sandra–wife and caregiver to her husband who had back surgery
Nancy–Currently a part time caregiver for and elderly women
Gwen–former caregiver for a variety of patients

There was a lot of great insight gained from these interviews. Each woman that we talked to (although our topic is not exclusive to female caregivers) had a lot of great answers for our questions and gave wonderful, entertaining stories and examples that we will be able to use in our subculture data collection.
As we asked about the pros and cons of being a caregiver, all of the ladies seemed to give us similar answers. To start off with, they all truly enjoyed what they did, and didn't consider it a hardship, even if it wasn't by choice that they were in their situation. They have big hearts and only have the best interests of their patients in mind. While it can sometimes be difficult to handle the mental and physical strain their responsibility puts on them, they would have it no other way. They all seemed to unanimously say that patience is the key to the work they do, since sometimes it is slow, or sometimes patients are not cooperative, or something goes wrong.
They have many concerns that come along with their job that might not be that obvious just from doing secondary research. For instance, their own age is a huge concern among them. Since they are baby boomers, 46-64, they are beginning to encounter health concerns that come with getting older. Along with the physical strain that they put on themselves while caregiving, this can add up to a decline in health. Also, money issues are another problem for caregivers and their families. Depending on the state of the person they are caring for, they might have to give up their job to take care of the person. And also, their patient might have been formally employed. Then, with the loss of one or two incomes coupled with medical bills, finances are a big concern.
Overall, this is a group that has a lot of love and a lot of problems. They also have great stories to tell.

For more on this, watch for Familial Baby Boomer Caregivers: An Insight by Kelsey Anderson and Joseph Shopen in your local bookstore. (tehehe)

Subculture: Shadowing

Dianne:
1-30-10
6.00 pm

She begins sitting on the couch, she is watching the entertainment news programs. She switches to a country music channel. Her husband is wheelchair-bound. It is a very quite house. They are both very quiet. While we are talking to her, Steve makes sounds, Dianne tells her helper that he needs to go to the bathroom. But Dianne doesn’t help with this, she tells us she can’t do all the physical lifting, that’s what the helper is for. She feels kind of awkward with us here, she seems really stiff. We sit for a while, making small talk. He husband thumps his foot against the wheelchair, and mumbles something. He cannot form words very well. She gets up and goes straight to him. He talks to her again, not making any words again. She is talking to him in a quiet, soothing voice. Simple language. Not like talking to a child, but still very basic. She somehow understands what he’s saying–Joseph and I don’t understand anything he says. She wheels him over to the kitchen table, and sets his out place mat. His is very still, she says that she must have been right that he was hungry. There is a younger woman in the kitchen, she is one of the part-time helpers (she is younger, looks like her twenties?) Dianne joins her in the kitchen and works on preparing the meal. It’s something mushy. She sets the food in front of Steve, and she helps him put his special silverware in his hands, and then the helper takes over for her. We continue with the interview.
__________________________

From the shadowing, Joseph and I gleaned some key insights to the everyday life of Dianne, a woman who is on the "heavy care" end of our subculture spectrum. We did this shadowing when we initially came to interview her. Earlier, during the interview, she mentioned that she is very reliant on media sources such as the internet (she loves pandora), email, and her television with satellite. This seemed to prove true as she was always a bit distracted by the TV But when her husband needed help, she was quick to jump to his aid.
Sitting with her, we got a clear idea of what some of her values were. She values the time that she spends with her husband, in contrast to the idea that he could be in assisted living right now instead. She does all that she can to keep her husband with her. Her shortcomings include her physical limitations that keep her from being able to give him full care. Because of this, she relies on the 24/7 support of hired helpers. She says that it is hard to find helpers for certain hours and certain days (like no one wants to come in during church time).
Anyway, her simple language is something that seemed to show her speaking style, as well as her knack for patience (an essential skill, all care takers have noted). Even though it is unclear to other people, Dianne was able to understand what her husband said to her, and he seemed to understand what she was saying back to him.

Baby Boomer Care Givers Analysis

To begin with, Baby Boomers are a group of people that span 20 years in age, from 46-64. This means that they are getting older, and might have parents that need caring or spouses that require help. The caregivers that we focused on were those that either fell into this because their family situation required it, or used caregiving as a part-time job now that they were wrapping up their careers. After interviewing a number of caregivers, we noted many traits that they seemed to share, as well as information such as their frustrations, worries, and concerns.
Caregivers of the Baby Boomer generation are genuinely concerned for the wellbeing of their patients, and are dedicated to whoever they are helping. During our research, it came up a lot that the baby boomer generation is an altruistic one, and this seemed to prove very true as all of our interviewees had past volunteer experience before becoming caregivers. A trusting personality is an essential quality of these caregivers, as they are asked to do a lot and they have to be careful not to offend or demean their patients throughout the day. This can sometimes be difficult, since sometimes patients can really give them a hard time. As one woman, Gwen, put it, “you’ve got to learn how to appease them, because you’re both set in your own ways.” But their patient, upbeat attitude keeps them going, in addition to being able to adapt to the person they’re caring for.
The caregivers we talked to were all very modest, downplaying their importance and happy with the gratitude they got. This surprised us, as we thought they might feel more burdened than they seemed to be. But they all seemed to love what they did and were content with the personal satisfaction they got from doing this.
Another thing that came as a surprise to us was that none of the women we interviewed had any professional experience that would have trained them to be care givers. Nancy said that all her experience came from being a mother, and another caregiver, Sandra, said that aside from some instructional packets (she is caring for her husband with a back injury), she relied learning quickly and being a good communicator to make things run smoothly. When shadowing Dianne, it seemed like she must have had some sort of training, the way she adjusted the wheelchair of her handicapped husband, or described all the equipment they used.
One worry that many baby boomer care givers seem to share though, is that they will soon need to start thinking about caring for themselves. As they age, they will be less and less able to take care of their patients, so they need to both find ways to continue aiding the patients, while accounting for any help they will begin to need. Financially, too, this is something that concerns our subculture quite a bit.

Design research, Designing for Interaction

Designing for Interaction

• qualitative - is a smaller range and asks why and how
• quantitative- more general statistics, asks what. Really large groups surveyed.
• Qualitative is the kind of research that we want to do because it is more personal and gives us an idea of aspects like the cultures behaviors, values, motivations.
• It's essential to remain neutral toward the group you're researching, even though you need to be empathetic.
• Being ethical is also essential with interacting with the audience.
• Collect information long enough, and patterns will emerge. This is what you map.
• When interviewing, note things besides their answers. Note the tone in their voice, body language, etc.

Design Research

• we must both observe an interpret:
• behaviors
• cultures
• belief systems
• attitudes

Ethnography - the study pf people in their own environment
It's important that as designers we are familiar with ethnography, so that we can research and analysis the people we are trying to appeal to.

Preliminary Research: Baby Boomers

• Defining a Baby Boomer

Generally.

Beginning with the secondary research, we thought it would be a good idea to see what makes this generation worth having its own name. Baby boomers are all of the Americans born between the years 1946 and 1964 beginning after World War II ended(this is also a generation in other countries like Canada, Australia, Great Britain, etc. But they have different names for this group in those countries) . Now, this group is about 29% of the population, about 75 million. But it's not just the time in which they were born. More definitely, it is the time during which they grew up that makes them so special.

BabyBoomerHeadQuarters is a great overview source for this. Fascinating stuff!

Economically:

• Boomers represent the majority of the work force, although, this is beginning to shift.
• The huge growth of the economy is because of boomers reaching their peak earning and spending years.
• Biggest buying group, currently-dominating big-ticket spending in areas like travelling (vacations), car sales, etc.
• Day care centers largely came to existence because boomers (so they also began the shift from staying home to take care of their kids)
• largely, advertising has been following this generation since they were kids. The story goes like this:

30 million baby boomers are around by 1950. Who comes along? Gerber, now probably the best known baby food company. The kids start to grow, and so does the toy industry, at a ridiculously fast pace. TV is just becoming big. So is children's programming. Disneyland pops up in in the 1950s as well. Later, in the 70s (now that the kids are a little older) Disneyworld is build and filled with thrill rides. Flashy cars of the 60s and 70s are also a result of catering to the Boomers.

Other products that are getting big because of this subculture: "active retirement communities and vacation homes, skin creams, tooth whitening goo, cosmetic surgery, lasik surgery, Depends, and, of course, the Hair Club for Men."*

And because I don't want to type this all out, I'll copy this directly:

Social Impact:

"Aside from that, what impact on society are boomers having? Well, let's see now... the CEO of General Electric is a boomer; the CEO of IBM is a boomer; the CEO of Ford is a boomer; Bill Gates, Paul Allen and Steve Ballmer (Microsoft) are boomers; Steve Jobs is a boomer; Steven Spielberg is a boomer; Ron Howard is a boomer; Tom Hanks is a boomer; Denzel Washington is a boomer; Meg Ryan is a boomer; Michael Jordon is a boomer. The producers of most TV shows and movies are boomers. The editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal (Paul Gigot) is a boomer. Rush Limbaugh is a boomer; Oprah is a boomer; Barack Obama is a boomer; Mitt Romney is a boomer. Madonna is a boomer; Bruce Springsteen is a boomer; Tom Cruise is a boomer; David Letterman is a boomer; Jay Leno is a boomer; Dr. Laura is a boomer. Clarence Thomas is a boomer; Sean Hannity is a boomer; Glenn Beck is a boomer; Al Gore is a boomer; Bill and Hillary Clinton are boomers; Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve System, is a boomer; Sarah Palin is a boomer; Osama bin Laden is a boomer; George Bush is a boomer; Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts is a boomer; every potential candidate for the Supreme Court for the next 20 years will likely be a boomer."

25 Defining Images in Baby Boomer History - pretty self-explanatory

Wikipedia Information

"As a group, they were the healthiest, and wealthiest generation to that time, and amongst the first to grow up genuinely expecting the world to improve with time."

"In the 1960s, as the relatively large numbers of young people became teenagers and young adults, they, and those around them, created a very specific rhetoric around their cohort, and the change they were bringing about.[4] This rhetoric had an important impact in the self perceptions of the boomers, as well as their tendency to define the world in terms of generations, which was a relatively new phenomenon."

Terms:

"Jones Generation" - the second half of the baby boomers generation. The name comes from the phrase "keeping up with the Joneses." Supposedly, the Jonesers were given huge expectations as children in the 60s, and then were confronted with a different reality in the 70s and 80s. Also, it seems they are "less optimistic, distrust of government, and general cynicism."

"Golden Boomers" - Boomers who are retired or will retire from an occupation or profession.

In the 1985 study of US generational cohorts by Schuman and Scott, a broad sample of adults was asked, "What world events over the past 50 years were especially important to them?" For the baby boomers the results were:

• Baby Boomer cohort #1 (born from circa 1946 to 1955), the young cohort who epitomized the cultural change of the sixties

• Memorable events: the Cuban Missile Crisis, assassinations of JFK, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr., political unrest, walk on the moon, risk of the draft into the Vietnam War, anti-war protests, social experimentation, sexual freedom, drug experimentation, civil rights movement, environmental movement,women's movement, protests and riots,Woodstock, mainstream rock from the Beatles to Jimi Hendrix and the R and B style of Motown.
• Key characteristics: experimental, individualism, free spirited, social cause oriented
• Key members: Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Former U.S. President George W. Bush

• Baby Boomer cohort #2 or Generation Jones (born from circa 1956–1964)

• Memorable events: Watergate, Nixon resigns, the Cold War, lowered drinking age in many states 1970-1976 (followed by raising), the oil embargo, raging inflation, gasoline shortages, Jimmy Carter's imposition of registration for the draft, disco music from Donna Summer and The Bee Gee's, punk or new wave from The Clash and Deborah Harry and techno pop to Annie Lennox and MTV.
• Key characteristics: less optimistic, distrust of government, general cynicism
• Key members: Douglas Coupland who initially was called a Gen Xer but now rejects it and President Barack Obama who many national observers have recently called a post-Boomer, and more specifically part of Generation Jones

CURRENT CONCERNS (pre interview assumptions)

"Baby Boomers control over 80% of personal financial assets and more than 50% of discretionary spending power. They are responsible for more than half of all consumer spending, buy 77% of all prescription drugs, 61% of OTC medication and 80% of all leisure travel."*

boomers start retiring during 2007–2009.

With a grain of salt, since this is from a 1993 article:

42% of baby boomers were dropouts from formal religion, a third had never strayed from church, and one-fourth of boomers were returning to religious practice. The boomers returning to religion were "usually less tied to tradition and less dependable as church members than the loyalists. They are also more liberal, which deepens rifts over issues like abortion and homosexuality."

As of 1998, it was reported that, as a generation, boomers had tended to avoid discussions and planning for their demise and avoided much long-term planning.

Baby Boomers are in a state of denial regarding their own aging and death and are leaving an undue economic burden on their children for their retirement and care.

Alzheimer's Defining Disease of the Baby Boomers

Retirements Swallowed by Debt

II

Continuing work after retirement

New Issues as Boomers continue to Age

Social Security Insecurity

Boomer's Guide to Medicare

Generation Gap

too-young-to-retire-and-too-old-to-rehire - an article dispelling myths about Boomer's