A survey released by Just Better Care has shown that 31 per cent of people from the state of New South Wales in Australia would prefer to quit any job and commitments to provide full-time care for their parents, rather than arrange for them to be cared for in a nursing home.

The nationwide poll revealed that almost half of Australians would either want or expect to be taken care of by their adult children when getting older; however only a third of adult children would quit their jobs and any other commitments to provide full-time care for an elderly parent - a concerning disjoint.

With advances in modern technology and medical science allowing people to live longer, adult children are increasingly a major source of care for elderly people who find they can no longer live independently, and care giving is becoming a fast-growing unpaid profession that has a great impact on families, employers, and the Australian economy. According to Carers Australia, more than one in eight Australians provide unpaid care and support to family members and friends who have a disability, mental illness, chronic condition, terminal illness or who are frail.

Trish Noakes, Founder and Director of Just Better Care, believes that the issue of who will care for someone when they are old is a sensitive and often difficult situation. “Children are often motivated by a strong sense of duty to care for their parents, yet the arrangement can often place family relationships under severe strain. There is also often a sense of guilt about the idea of putting Mum or Dad in a nursing home.”