Caregiver Connections- November 3rd

Right at Home is very involved in the North Shore Alzheimer's Partnership's Caregiver Connection every year. This is a wonderful educational event for people who are caregiving loved ones who are living with dementia and Alzheimer's. This year we have wonderful speakers, including Dr. Paul Raia from the Alzheimer's Association, Dr. Wayne Salzman from Lahey Clinic, and Dr. Lewis Hayes from AllCare Hospice.

Our families have gotten tremendous resources and comfort knowing that they are not alone in their caregiving struggles. It will take place at the Holiday Inn on Route 1 in Peabody. Pre-registration is recommended because we were full last year. Call 781-281-7890 to register. The cost is $10 for families and $20 for professionals and the hours are 8:30 AM to 1:30 PM.

Parade Magazine Piece About Adult Caregiving

Did anyone see the piece that Parade Magazine did last month on Adult Caregiving? I thought that it did good job of bringing to light the difficulties that so many of my families are faced with and were not entirely prepared to deal with. It talks about how caregiving can even be life threatening. It states that between 40% and 70% of caregivers have clinically significant symptoms of depression and depression often leads to a neglect of the caregivers own physical and mental health. It also stated a financially devastating fact- over a lifetime, family caregivers sacrifice and average of more than $500,000 in total income. The conclusion to the article is that we all need to spend more time thinking about what we will do when and if we become a caregiver, because the federal government is basically leaving middle America to "figure it out". States are actively trying to support caregivers through many innovative programs and companies are trying to help their employees that may be caregiving an adult. It is a situation that we all have some exposure to, but it doesn't seem that we have any one answer. There are good links in the article that I will add to my blog.