Yvette Nicole Brown says she felt guilty about putting her father in an asylum

She added that she asked to be released from her contract for the TV sitcom “Community” because she was unable to be on set for 16 hours while caring for her father.

However, after her father broke his hip in a hard fall a few months ago, Brown said she made the painful decision to place him in a care home.

“He’s in a place now where he can’t be in the house with me anymore because he can’t walk,” Brown said. “Releasing him to other people’s care was a very difficult thing to do and a very heartbreaking, guilt-ridden choice. But the goal was to get the best care for him and it’s not me anymore.”

The actor said he visits him several times a week at the assisted living facility.

“So now he’s moved in with me to step into less of a day-to-day caregiving role and more of his daughter — I didn’t get to be just his daughter for 11 years,” Brown added.

Brown is not alone in her experience: The US – like many other countries around the world – is facing an aging population and an elder care crisis.

The U.S. population is older today than it has ever been, and the number of Americans age 65 and older is projected to grow from 58 million in 2022 to 82 million by 2050, according to the Population Reference Bureau.

While some people live healthier for longer, many others will need some form of caregiving services.

According to the US Administration for Community Living, 69% of adults turning 65 will – at some point – require long-term care services for an average of three years. Another 20% will need it for more than five years.

Yet at the same time, the U.S. has at least 600 fewer nursing homes than it did six years ago, according to a 2023 Wall Street Journal analysis.

With fewer nursing homes and rising costs of elder care, baby boomers and geriatric millennials will have to rely on family members to provide the care they need.

A 2021 survey by the Pew Research Center found that 23 percent 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.