Caregiving

Help for caregivers is on its way January 1, 2016!

November marks National Family Caregiving Month, a time to recognize the 40 million Americans – and 173,000 in New Hampshire – who help older parents, spouses and other loved ones live independently at home, where they want to be. The unpaid care they provide – managing medications, cooking meals, driving to appointments, performing complex medical tasks and more – is valued at over $2.2 billion in the Granite State alone.

AARP New Hampshire released a survey today that shows what’s important to Granite Staters 50-plus.

We often joke about memory loss but what happens when it becomes more than a senior moment? What is the impact of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia – on the person, the caregiver, society, and the economy? And what can we do about it?

The following information is being reprinted -- with permission -- from New Hampshire Union Leader’s Senior News column (April 6, 2015).

Interested in new ways of thinking about life and its possibilities? Want to gain new insights into the process we call aging? Then you might want to pay attention to the Age of Disruption Tour 2015 and what it has to offer. It’s all on April 21 in Manchester when you can shake up everything you think you know about aging!

We often joke about memory loss but what happens when it becomes more than a senior moment? What is the impact of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia – on the person, the caregiver, society, and the economy? And what can we do about it?

Across political parties, more than seven in ten registered voters age 40 and older say Congress should improve resources for family caregivers who help their parents, spouses, children with disabilities and other loved ones to live independently. This and other findings from a new poll underscore the need for the bipartisan, bicameral Assisting Caregivers Today (ACT) Caucus launched today by U.S. Senators Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) and Michael Bennet (D-CO) and U.S. Representatives Diane Black (R-TN) and Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM), co-chairs of the ACT Caucus. The Caucus will help bring greater attention to family caregiving and helping people live independently, educate Congress on these issues, and engage legislators on a bipartisan basis to help lead to solutions.

We often joke about memory loss but what happens when it becomes more than a senior moment? What is the impact of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia – on the person, the caregiver, society, and the economy? And what can we do about it?