Financial Assistance for Caregivers.

Here is a link to a really great article in Today's Caregiver, at Caregiver.com.  It discusses the problems that American families face in trying to provide for themselves and their care-taker. Here is an excerpt from the article.

"Almost everyone lives paycheck-to-paycheck, and when the extra responsibility of being a family caregiver for a loved one is added to an already costly equation, you’ve got a situation that stretches way beyond anyone’s financial imagination or reality. It’s taken several years for the financial plight of the family caregiver to be recognized, probably because it was always assumed that health insurance and other coverage would pay for any of the medical expenses and other needs of a loved one, which is certainly far from being true. With over 54 million caregivers in the United States (and counting), their collective voices are echoing louder and louder with the cries of financial anguish and despair. The situation has reached a crisis level, with many family caregivers having to choose between paying the mortgage or paying for their loved one’s life-sustaining medicines, unable to afford both. Family caregivers also run the risk of losing jobs and benefits because of their dedication to a loved one who may be terminally ill, physically challenged, aging, or all three at the same time. Although our government is beginning to recognize the financial crisis among family caregivers with the creation of the National Family Caregiver Support Program and the Older American’s Act, we still haven’t gotten past the beginning stages in providing financial assistance for all family caregivers on a national level. Financial help for caregivers still seems to be primarily up to each individual state and/or community, with monetary decisions based upon what can be afforded in the way of caregiver assistance at that particular time."

This is a problem I hear about all the time from the caregivers I speak to.  It seems as if our government is completely behind the times when it comes to the needs and demands of an increasingly aging population and their caregivers.  I give thanks every day that the one thing my father had organized was his financial stability.  I don't know quite how he managed it after the dementia started to encroach on his faculties.  He had been a quite brilliant, amateur investor up to that point, and thankfully was able to ensure that I had enough money to care for him comfortably.  My heart breaks for all the people I speak to who are having to rely on Medicaid and other faulty systems, and who are stressing about finances on top of the loss of their loved one.

We need to come up with better programs and find ways to make existing resources easier to locate and make use of.  The link below accesses the article directly as well as some links on how to find programs in your area that may be of help. I highly recommend checking it out!

http://www.caregiver.com/regionalresources/financial/index.htm