Am a senior caregiver, also helping other caregivers in private & business sectors. Businesses, employers, insurers, and non-profits also need to respond to this crisis. Government (& taxation) simply cannot do all the heavy work needed for huge numbers of aging elders. We can all start by 1)being aware, 2) step up to help locally 3) help a friend. Prevent chronic problems and try to stay healthy as WE age.
I think about this every day, as I care for a disabled adult, currently full time. This is a huge issue that we are just not dealing with adequately as a society. I don't want my son to ever end up in a nursing home, and many people feel the same way about their parents. The current system is VERY broken, and most people do not realize how broken it is because there is very little media attention on this issue, so you don't find out what the situation is until you get there, by that time it is way too late to plan adequately. The choices we have for caring the the elderly and disabled in this country are not only ridiculous, they are cruel and dehumanizing. This legislation is the start of needed reform and looking at the issue from a reality based perspective instead of us collectively as a society looking the other way at the very real suffering that families of the elderly and disabled experience.
Family caregivers really need support...it's that simple. Should an adult have to give up their life, their income to care for a parent? It's not right...and other countries do provide support.
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What this article does not mention is that on top of all the social and psychological benefits for the patient (if not the caregiver ;( ), it is much
CHEAPER than a hospital, nursing home or hospice. AARP estimates that even paying a professional care-giver is only third the cost of an institution, as well as being better, and providing more jobs.
If we had a decent group of people running this country, they would see all the advantages of home care and change Medicaid and Medicare payments to reflect all the benefits of home care.
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I quit my full-time RN position at age 59 to care for my 94-year-old father. He lived a happy, comfortable life another 5 years at home until his death at age 99. Those were the hardest years of my life. But the most important lesson learned was to maintain a normal weight and mobility as my father did. We cannot expect women to take care of us if we are too heavy to move.
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My work duties, barely paid my own 15 year old car expenses, which was then 3 years old.... I used my car, my time, my health (my spine, my weight lifting arms, my legs, and my brain that has a Masters of Science degree in Organizational Psychology).
Shopping, cooking, meal planning working around newly discovered food allergies, working with Rx for overdose based on Rx not for elder with slowing liver/kidney function toxicity, lack of oxygen - creating bouts of dementia- anger, politicking with MD's and their staff operations - fax machines, blood work, buying medical tools (chairs, benches, soaps, cleansers), hygiene and disease transference practices in the home), socialization. Then lets get into the legalese of planning to fail at helping: death, social security benefits, VA home bound spouse benefits, house and management of maintenance and those expenses. Insurance and various follow-ups with policy, overbilling, lack of coverage, change of coverage, learning the medicare coverage, learning the retirement coverage and benefits. Deal with their siblings, your own siblings, pay bills, and pay your own bills for phone, car insurance, medical for yourself (none), a day off, (none), a break (none) and then, run your own dreams into the ground, while you sleep for three hours before the Life Alert goes off, there's six wonderful fireman in your home life at 3 am lifting her off the floor. HELP.
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This is not enough money! $70 a day is $490 a week. If you need a full time home health aide this will not cover it. Not in NYS anyway.
If you hire an aide for $10 a hour, and that aide works 8 hours a day, that is $80 a day. Again, if you can find anyone who will work for that rate.
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its a start, right now they get NOTHING...
I support Hawaii's program. However, those who can qualify for long-term care insurance, should get it. They'll be much better off with #LTCi. Hawaii's program only pays $70 per day for only 365 days. That's not "long-term care" in my opinion.
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this is a pilot program, to see how it works...it would be a major piece of legislation to pass full LTC through, it wold be very expensive. This is a great place to start. Imagine what it would be like in this country if we actually made these issues a PRIORITY, wow, the mind boggles...
Where does the $70 per day come from? Other taxpayers? This sounds like a great program... except... if $70 per day is going to these folks, it's coming from and/or not going to other folks.
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Yeah the richest nation the world has ever known cannot afford to care for the sick and the elderly.
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Is it not our society's collective obligation to care for our elders? Their energy, hard work, and tax dollars paid for the public schools that most of us attended, the roads that we drive on, and countless other public benefits. You sound like you fear that your pocket is being picked.
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'A lot of women need to work, but at the same time they have many responsibilities, and to caregive...'
What about men?...do men not need to work?...don't have responsibilities?...don't caregive?
Can we please stop with women whining about 'how much they have to do' (simply 'because' they are women)? What century are we living in? So long as certain women go around thinking and expecting they have to do more, simply 'because' they are women (and not men), so it will be. It becomes self-fulfilling. As a female, I get tired of women 'complaining' out of one side of their mouths (about how unfair it is that women 'have to' do so much more than men with regards to the family and the home) and then they turn around and 'assume' these same responsibilities and/or don't allow the men to assist or else they are constantly putting the men's efforts down as being 'inadequate'.
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This assumes the caregiver is married. The real unfairness is that caregiving usually falls to the single children, male or female. The married siblings (or with children) will contend that they have more responsibilities - as if the single ones don’t. And singles have just one income. If they lose that by having to quit or have to reduce their hours, they can fall into poverty. My caregiving days are over, and while I miss my parents terribly, I remember those years as being really dark.
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It's just an objective fact that most families place all the responsibility for caregiving for elderly parents on the oldest daughter. You can get mad at that fact, but your emotional reaction doesn't change reality. It would be great if men would step up, but until then, lets focus on providing support to the women who do the lion's share of this work.
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Amen. Lisa clearly isn't a caregiver. Bully for her on trying to turn this into some kind of whiny women gender argument. Whether female or male, anyone in this position faces not just the loss of potential and possibilities in life, but poverty later for taking on these responsibilities. Not to mention the lack of emotional support and loss of social status.
Thing is, from my perspective, someone's got to look after aging parents - I'm not just going to leave them to be preyed upon, or dwindling in the wind - and who better than me, but people not in that position don't realize how dark of a reality this is.
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This is an extremely critical issue, especially because women are the largest group of caregivers and most need to work. It's good to see Hawaii, which is a state that has great respect for the needs of citizens, taking a lead on this issue.
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