Fierce Urgency of Now: Family Caregivers and the Future That Is Upon Us

Just before Mother’s Day, I was a guest on an Al-Jazeera news segment focused on the challenges of aging in America. It was my first-ever news appearance, and, later, I proudly showed a recording to my adult daughters when they came by to visit. The segment included a look at how elders are navigating the shoals of old age, sickness, and financial insecurity—a future millions of face, and all of us deny.
One segment featured a mid-life African American woman who had abandoned her retirement dreams to care for her mother, who has Alzheimer’s. As the woman fixed her mother’s wisps of hair, both daughters turned to me and said, “We are never doing that. You need to tell us what you want.”
“I would never want you to do that,” I replied—abandon their lives to maintain mine—but the odds are, they may have to. If they cannot care for me (or if America continues to skirt changing public policies that affect the lives of working families, family caregivers, and older adults), I will likely spend a few years of my late old age in an institutional care facility. If I live past 80, I am likely, like half my peers, to experience signs and symptoms of cognitive decline. I will simply not be safe at home and alone.
The numbers tell this story for people my age, “young” Boomers in our fifties: If cancer doesn’t kill us in our 60s, and heart disease spares us in our 70s, dementia and frailty will come for us in our 80s and 90s.
Pharmaceutical advances like HAART and ...

Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - September 25, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs