Advocacy

When it comes to balancing family life, working, and full-time caregiving, it can be overwhelming. Does this sound like this you?

November marked National Family Caregivers Month, a time to recognize the 40 million Americans – more than 61,000 from North Dakota – 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 $860 million in North Dakota alone.

State lawmakers launched a study this summer to determine what kinds of support family caregivers need. The study could lead to legislation in 2017 to ease the burden on those caring for a loved one at home.

In November, the North Dakota Public Service Commission finalized its ruling on a natural gas rate increase requested by Montana-Dakota Utilities.

Family caregivers in North Dakota provided 58 million hours of care – worth an estimated $860 million – 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.

Volunteers are a critical resource for AARP and the work we do to make a positive impact on the lives of others, including here in North Dakota.

Bismarck and Fargo have both been named a Top 10 city in a new Livability Index developed by AARP. The study identified the most livable places in the country for people 50-plus.

AARP North Dakota presented a wrap-up report on the 2015 North Dakota Legislature in Fargo, Grand Forks, Minot, Bismarck, Dickinson and Williston in mid-May.

A bill introduced this week in the North Dakota Legislature would better support thousands of family caregivers in the state.

There’s a silent army of family caregivers in this country that includes more than 100,000 North Dakotans each year.