"Trading Places"

Last evening NBC Nightly News began a series entitled "Trading Places - Caring for Your Parents". Video from last night featured Bryan Williams and his father who lives in an upscale assisted living facility. Tonight's segment featured Tim Russert and his father who lives alone in his home.

NBC is urging their viewers/readers to submit their own stories and photos of caring for their parents.

You can access these stories and videos here.

The typical caregiver....

....according to a report by Faiza Elmasry at Voice of America....is a women who is 46 years old, with a job outside the home, and spends 20 hours a week caring for a mother who leaves nearby.

In her report, Elmasy quotes author Mary Lou Quinlan, who discourages women from leaving their jobs to care for family.

I totally disagree.

Listen to Elmasry report here.

Jennifer is a 37 year old divorced woman who no longer works outside the home so that she can care for her 97 year old grandmother. Read about Jennifer and her grandmother Donna here. They sound like quite a pair!

"State working on plan to help elderly stay at home"

According to this article the state of North Dakota Department of Human Services has determined that:

Helping seniors and the disabled live in their own homes is the goal of a quadrennial plan that state officials have nearly completed.

And it is an admirable goal - except that it continues to assume that the responsibility for keeping the elderly at home or in the home of family caregivers lies with the state and not with the family.

The draft of a report outlining their plan for achieving this goal can be read here.

Last evening I had a long conversation with a young mother who was curious about my plans when Emily leaves home, and wondered if I would return to my nursing career. I explained to her that I made the decision after my mother died to no longer keep up my certification - that I had been away from nursing too many years to safely practice without considerable re-education, but that doesn't mean that my education and skills cannot be used in a different way.

Helping families to understand the stay-at-home options for family caregiving and giving caregivers the confidence and tools to do so apart from government/tax payer support is my goal, and like the state of North Dakota, I'm working on a plan.

"Give a Caregiver a Break" Essay Contest for Family Caregivers

Caring Today Magazine is hosting an essay contest for family caregivers with $10,000 in prizes. Home Instead Senior Care is co-sponsoring this contest.

Every caregiver has a tale to tell. Tell us yours in 500 words or less for your chance to win the GRAND PRIZE worth $5,000 or a FIRST PRIZE worth $2,500! Let us know about the day-to-day experience of caregiving: How you’ve embraced the role of caregiver for a senior loved one, what impact it’s had on you, how you’ve inspired others and how a Home Instead CAREGiver could make a difference in your life. Submit your entry online no later than 11:59 p.m. July 15, 2006 , or mail your typed entry to Essay Contest, c/o Caring Today, 1465 Post Road East, Westport, CT 06880. Mailed entries must be postmarked by July 15, 2006.

Caregiving youth

Three graduating high school seniors from Boca Raton, Florida, are the first national recipients of a new scholarship honoring caregiving youth.

From the Boca Raton News: Scholarships given to caregiving HS students

These stories represent examples of the 1.4 million children who are young caregivers and the thousands of young caregivers who live in Palm Beach County. Young Caregivers in the U.S. is the first national report about children-18 years of age and under who are caring for a family member. The majority (72 percent) assist a parent or grandparent, the report said.

The American Association of Caregiving Youth has an interesting website. While I have not read everything there, I am impressed with what I have read so far.

My children all assumed various roles at different times for the care of my father and mother, and I am very proud of them for doing so.

Twenty Million Adults in the U.S. Care for Elderly Parents

A generation of caregivers

This article by Darran Simon in the Miami Herald goes on to state:

"About 80 percent of long-term care is given at home by a family member, according to the Family Caregiver Alliance."

As well it should be!

And...

The new caregiver role is forcing some adults to move closer to their parents.

I wish we had never moved so far away from our parents to begin with! Mr. Latin has the right attitude:

''It's something I didn't think twice about,'' said Otis J. Latin Sr., who recently resigned after nine years as Fort Lauderdale fire chief to return to Texas to care for his mother, Effie Williams, 78, who has Alzheimer's disease.

Latin, 58, took a job as director of Homeland Security and Emergency Management in Austin. This summer, he and his wife, Gloria, plan to move Williams into the home they are building in Austin. ''My mother has sacrificed for me all my life,'' he said.