- Yvette Nicole Brown has been her dad's primary caregiver for the past 11 years, since he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.
- However, she recently had to place him in a care home because she could no longer take care of him.
Yvette Nicole Brown says she recently had to put her father — who has Alzheimer's — in a care home because she could no longer be his primary caregiver.
In an interview with People, the actor opened up about how she dropped everything to care for her father full-time when he was diagnosed with the disease over a decade ago.
"But it was the easiest decision I made because in my mind, he taught me so much. How can I not step up and be there for him in his moment of need? My dad comes first," Brown said.
She added that she asked to be released from her contract for the TV sitcom "Community" because she couldn't manage being on set for 16 hours while tending to her father.
However, after her father broke his hip from a bad fall a few months ago, Brown said she made a painful decision to place him in a care home.
"He's now at a place where he can't be with me in the house anymore because he no longer walks," Brown said. "Releasing him to the care of other people was a very difficult thing to do and a very heartbreaking, guilt-ridden choice to make. But the goal was to get the best care for him and that's no longer me."
The actor shared that she visits him at the assisted living facility several times a week.
"So now it's shifted to me stepping into less of a daily caregiver role and more of just his daughter — I have not been able to be just his daughter in 11 years," Brown added.
Brown is not alone in her experience: The US — like many other countries in the world — is experiencing an aging population and grappling with an eldercare crisis.
The US population is older today than it has ever been, and the number of Americans aged 65 and older is projected to increase from 58 million in 2022 to 82 million by 2050, according to the Population Reference Bureau.
While some people are living healthier for longer, many others will need some form of care services.
According to the US Administration for Community Living, 69% of adults who reach 65 years old will — at some point — require long-term care services for an average of three years. Another 20% will require it for more than five years.
However, at the same time, the US has at least 600 fewer nursing homes than it did six years ago, according to a 2023 Wall Street Journal analysis.
With fewer care homes and rising eldercare costs, baby boomers and geriatric millennials will have to rely on family members to provide the care they need.
A 2021 Pew Research Center survey found that 23% of US adults are now part of the "sandwich generation."
A representative for Brown did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.