Caregiving

The Aging Nebraskans Task Force invites the public to attend upcoming town hall meetings on Alzheimer’s Disease in Kearney on Aug. 27, Omaha on Sept. 15 and Alliance on Sept. 29.

About 33,000 older Nebraskans currently have Alzheimer’s disease. That number is expected to jump by more than 20 percent in the next ten years as the population ages and the oldest boomers turn 80.

Family caregivers in Nebraska provided 182 million hours of care—worth an estimated $2.5 billion—to their parents, spouses, partners, and other adult loved ones in 2013, according to AARP Public Policy Institute’s new report, Valuing the Invaluable: 2015 Update. The total estimated economic value of uncompensated care provided by the nation’s family caregivers surpassed total Medicaid spending ($449 billion), and nearly equaled the annual sales ($469 billion) of the four largest U.S. tech companies combined (Apple, Hewlett Packard, IBM, and Microsoft) in 2013.

AARP Nebraska Executive Council Member Kathy Ward recently shared her personal story with the Legislature's Health and Human Services Committee in support of LB 405. Among AARP Nebraska's top priority bills for the 2015 legislative session, LB 405 calls for development of a state plan to address Alzheimer’s and the impact on families.