Deborah Carr, a sociology professor at Boston University, says that living arrangements like Inez and Barb’s could be the “wave of the future” for two reasons: many older adults will need a form of support other than a nuclear family, and there is a persistent paid-caregiver shortage in the United States. (Low pay and difficult working conditions for nursing assistants and home health aides contribute to the high turnover in those fields.) She also points out that caregiving between friends has the appeal of being egalitarian, unlike a parent-child relationship, where the older person may feel
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