Bradley Cooper says caring for his father was a 'wake-up call' to the caregiving crisis squeezing millions of families

By Jessica Hall

Cooper is producing a documentary about caregiving with PBS.

Bradley Cooper, actor, director and producer, took care of his late father, Charles Cooper, after his diagnosis with lung cancer. He described that experience as a traumatic and lonely wake-up call.

Cooper now is executive producing a two-hour documentary called "Caregiving," which will premiere on PBS in the spring of 2025.

"Like most people, I didn't ever think about caregiving until my father was diagnosed with cancer," Cooper said in a YouTube video promoting the documentary.

"My dad was somebody who I idolized. I used to dress up like him when I was a kid in kindergarten and get made fun of because I wanted to wear, like, a suit and a tie. And to go from that to giving him a bath is...is...is...a...quite a traumatic thing," Cooper said. Cooper's father died in 2011.

More than 1 in 5 Americans are caregivers, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the need will only increase as the population ages.

The unpaid cost of that care is staggering. According to AARP, the care provided by unpaid family caregivers across the U.S. was valued at $600 billion in 2021. That's based on about 38 million caregivers providing an average of 18 hours of care per week for a total of 36 billion hours of care, at an average value of $16.59 per hour, AARP said.

"When my father was diagnosed with cancer, that was a wake-up call for me, one that really opened my eyes to the world of caregiving," Cooper said in a statement. "Everyone will end up caring for a loved one at some point in their life. The level of loneliness can overcome an individual going through this - it's overwhelming. Raising this conversation on a national level will help, and together, I believe we can make a difference."

The topic of caregiving has reached a boiling point. AARP recently hosted a webinar on the topic and the toll it takes on caregivers and their careers. Most family caregivers provide at least 20 hours of care each week, equal to an unpaid part-time job, according to AARP. A majority - 67% - of family caregivers report having difficulty balancing their jobs with caregiving duties. For example, 27% of working caregivers have shifted from full-time to part-time work or have reduced hours, 16% have turned down a promotion, according to AARP.

As the nation's number of older adults aged 65 years or older is projected to surpass the population of children by 2030, the burden of caregiving is expected to increase. The estimated cost of lost earnings due to caregiving was $67 billion in 2013 and that number is expected to rise to $132 billion to $147 billion by 2050, according to a HealthAffairs study.

Even among paid caregivers, financial strains exist. The median annual pay for a professional caregiver is less than $24,000, and almost half of professional caregivers rely on public assistance, according to PHI, which provides data and resources for the direct care workforce.

The financial toll, as well as the mental health and physical health strains on caregivers, has been overlooked for too long, said Tom Chiodo, executive producer of "Caregiving" and executive producer of special projects for WETA, the PBS station in Washington, D.C., that is producing the documentary. Lea Pictures and Ark Media are also involved in the project.

"We have a crisis within a crisis within a crisis," Chiodo said.

Chiodo said he contacted Cooper about joining the project, knowing his family connection to caregiving.

"Bradley is using his bully pulpit to address the issue. Through his global reach, he has the ability to impact this topic," Chiodo said.

The "Caregiving" documentary will follow the experiences of families and professional caregivers. The stories include a young father who became the primary caretaker for both his wife and son after his wife was treated for a stroke and cancer, and a young woman who put her career on hold to care for her mother, who has Alzheimer's disease. Another story features a home health aide who commutes three hours to care for a client with multiple sclerosis.

"It's caregiving's time to come out of the closet. During the pandemic, people started talking about mental health and now mental health has come out of the closet. Twenty five years ago cancer came out of the closet. Before that, people didn't talk about cancer openly. Now, it's caregiving's time," Chiodo said.

The project will include a digital campaign and national education program through libraries and other organizations to help audiences better understand the issues caregivers face and build awareness for help and resources in their communities.

In addition to the national network of PBS stations, other partners include the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers, Milken Institute Center for the Future of Aging, Grantmakers In Aging, Global Coalition on Aging, and National Alliance for Caregiving.

Chiodo hopes the documentary will raise awareness, educate people and change the national discourse around caregiving. That could prompt larger companies to change their policies on caregiving support or promote change on a national level through legislation, he said.

"While I hope we will reach a whole nation about caregiving, but if we do it one by one - that's what matters. If we can start by helping one person," Chiodo said.

-Jessica Hall

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05-25-24 1305ET

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