State Legislators in Santa Fe are facing some difficult financial decisions as budget projections of $232 million in new money have dwindled to $30 million. As the debate gets ready to enter the Senate, AARP New Mexico is watching budget negotiations to ensure that senior services and programs are maintained.
If you are a family caregiver in New Mexico there is a new law that can help you be included in your loved one’s care when that person is admitted into the hospital. It’s called the New Mexico Lay Caregiver Aftercare Training Act, also known as the CARE Act.
New Mexico caregiver Valentin Varela and his mother Ruby were selected by AARP for a special honor designed to highlight and showcase the work that unpaid family caregivers do across the country. In New Mexico 419,000 people provide care at any one time for a family member or other loved one.
Every year more than 419,000 family caregivers in New Mexico help their loved ones to live independently -- keeping them out of costly institutions, such as nursing homes. In New Mexico, family caregivers provide unpaid care valued at about $3.1 billion annually.
The stories are all too familiar – shuttling loved ones off to appointments when they refuse to get dressed, relationship problems that don’t magically go away because you are now caring for that person; and finding the strength to do what needs to be done.