I watched
the President’s State of the Union speech last week with some hope, some
concern for our nation, and, admittedly, a little bit of cynicism. You spoke passionately of where the country
was going, and how far we’d come, describing the steps that needed to be taken
to improve our economy, to better educate our children, assist the healthcare
and Medicare systems, and improve the environment. You spoke movingly of special groups of
Americans who needed our attention; those who had been disenfranchised, those
who had lost loved ones to violence, those who suffered from joblessness and
poverty. Most groups I could think of
were covered by you, and deservedly so, except for one; caregivers. I guess there’s a reason we’re called the
“Hidden Population” – you don’t seem to know about us, and you’re not the only
one.
There are an
estimated 4 million people in the US alone living with advanced stage
Alzheimer’s, the biggest, but by far not the only, dementia-related
dysfunction. By 2050, there will be 14
million sufferers in America. By 2025,
34 million people globally will be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s alone. More than 80% of unpaid caregivers are women,
and two-thirds of caregivers work outside the home. Unpaid family caregiving saves our government
millions of dollars in health care annually, and people are filling this role
out of love or duty, without much public support. These are not my statistics; these are your
government’s figures, and yet, Alzheimer’s and the aging of our population
received only a token mention during your speech.
When was the
last time you looked on Facebook and took note of the many groups formed by
average people trying to give sufferer and caregivers alike a voice and a place
to speak about the terrible things they are going through? There are almost more than I can count. Have you looked at the blogosphere
lately? It’s filled up with sites
created by ordinary people doing extraordinary things; sending their voices out
into the darkness, trying to make sense of the senseless and sharing support.
Lacking much official support, caregivers are forging their own; but it’s not
enough.
You spoke of
defending against cyber-attacks, and how nobody wanted to look back after a few
years and say we should have done something.
Dementia, in all it’s forms, is poised to strike the country like a
tsunami in the coming years, and there are few strategies in place to deal with
it. You spoke of creating jobs in manufacturing and the computer sciences,
worthy careers, to be sure, but what about finding and training more
professional caregivers to meet the growing number of aging baby boomers you
also mentioned, who will flood the nursing and assisted living systems,
stressing inadequate resources. We are
approaching an emergency situation.
I am one of
the lucky ones; my father had enough money to help me comfortably arrange for
his care. This is not the case for most
caregivers, so many of whom have nothing but the sinking ship of Medicaid to
clamber on to. I hear heart-breaking
stories every day in my work as a counselor/caregiver advocate, and I see that
all our society has done so far is plaster band-aids on a gaping wound. I implore you and the First Lady to direct
attention to caregivers; they need our support.
Increase awareness about what they are struggling with, look honestly at
the situation, include us in a speech – believe me, we could use the publicity. I know we’re not a flashy issue that lends
itself to media attention, but just go meet a caregiver, and learn about these
ordinary individuals, being asked to do the extraordinary. We’re not flashy, but we do vote.
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