Where have I been???

Sorry to all, I have been neglecting this blog. I have a reason that I will tell you in a moment. But first I want to share something with you:

 This blog has allowed me to dispense very important and useful information to many people. 

 For the past 10 years, I have been meeting families, one at a time, usually in a crisis and found myself saying basically the same things.  It always bothered me that by the time I met these families they had been suffering or struggling for a long time. If there was only some way I could find a larger forum to disseminate information that would save people a lot of time and needless angst?  So I was thrilled when I learned how to blog and finally found my forum.

The response has been great, and I appreciate all of the comments that people have sent me, telling me that my information has helped them.  That is my goal. I have seen too many really nice wonderful people at the end of their rope. These caregivers are amazing people, doing incredible things at great personal sacrifice for people they love.

So where have I been?  I am in the final stages of building a website.  This website is going to be an extensive and detailed site that will provide tons of information for caregivers. This site is specifically designed and geared for caregivers that are struggling to negotiate the maze of services, agencies, products and programs that can help them take care of their loved one.  The vast majority of caregivers are taking care of someone with Alzheimer’s and so the site will lean a little towards their situation. But there will be much for all caregivers regardless of the circumstances that place them in that role.  What is important is that the site will give away this information. Hopefully, information that you can use right now, to improve your situation.

There are plenty of businesses and people trying to make a buck off of caregivers, and they often slant their information towards their own product or service.  My site will be unbiased. It will be educational. And it will serve both new caregivers that are just starting out on their journey and for the veteran caregiver as well.  Yes, at some point there will be products and services that will be available for purchase from my site. But because information is crucial, the readers will have the information to make informed choices and decisions. 

The blogging will continue and there will also be a newsletter with as much vital information I can find to share with you. But it won’t be shoved down your throat. There will also be videos to watch, and links to other helpful sites.

If you go there right now you will only see a picture of my CD and how to order it.  That is just there for the time being. But if you want to get in on the grand opening of my site, if you want to be informed when the site goes up. You can do a couple of things: you can sign up for my blog (look on the right had side of the screen for how to that), or you can send a comment to me through this blog right here, give me your email address and I will send you a personal email when the site goes live.  So I hope to see you there at www.caregiverrelief.com very soon. 

By the way, I am writing this blog all in one take, and throwing it up, so if there are any typos or mistakes please forgive me.  Thanks for reading…Donahue

2008 Report from the Alzheimer’s Association

2008 Report from the Alzheimer’s Association

The Alzheimer’s Association, a national non-profit organization, devoted to the elimination of Alzheimer’s disease and the care and comfort of its sufferers and their caregivers, has released a comprehensive survey.   The results of which are amazing.  If you want to see the whole study, go to their website: alz.org.  However, over the next few posts, I want to present you with some of the more interesting findings, especially focusing on what they learned about caregivers.

First off let’s start with some basic statistics. There are almost 10 million caregivers in the United States.  The term caregiver, as we use it here refers to family members, friends and neighbors that provide unpaid care for a person with Alzheimer’s or another dementia.  On average, these 10 million caregivers give nearly 8½ billion hours of unpaid care per year, with an approximate value of 89 billion dollars.  I am always curious how they come up with these numbers. Well in this case, they tell us.  The work you do as a caregiver is estimated to be worth $10.58 per hour. (Well at least it’s not minimum wage).  But how does that compare to the paid caregiver? The average wage of a home health care aide is $15.32 per hour.

But let’s break that down to.  Are you running the average?  If, last year, you provided 16.6 hours per week of care for your loved one you’re in there.  But I bet you beat that. One study found that almost 1 in 4 caregiver’s provided more than 40 per week. Perhaps that better describes you.

The study goes on to state the obvious. At least it’s obvious to caregivers…As the Alzheimer’s sufferer worsens the caregiving hours go up. So that caregivers find themselves providing help and supervision 24 hours a day, 7 days per week.  As caregivers you are profoundly aware of such around-the-clock care because your parent or spouse cannot be left alone for even a few moments.  Often you are getting up with the person worrying about them wandering or other unsafe behaviors.

Caregiving, by the way, is much more than helping with “Activities of Daily Living” (ADLs). ADLs, if you don’t know, are helping with bathing, dressing, eating, toileting, etc.  But as you DO know, caregiving doesn’t stop there. Caregivers wear many hats. They make arrangements for medical care, the manage finances and legal affairs and they do shopping for groceries, provide transportation,  help a person take medications correctly.

The study confirms what we knew that most caregivers are women. About 60% are wives, daughters, daughters-in-law, granddaughters and other female relatives, friends and neighbors. The largest percentage is ages 50-64, at 37%. The next largest group is ages 35-49 at 29%.  Interestingly, about a quarter million children ages 8-18 are in the caregiving role, and as caregivers they too assist with bathing, dressing, feeding or helping the person to the toilet.  I doubt they are sole caregivers; that would be ridiculous. But mostly they live in homes with adult caregivers and help provide care for the afflicted person.

Long-distance caregivers make up about 10% of unpaid family caregivers …but there’s more to say about that and other fascinating statistics in the next installment of this blog (which I am trying desperately to put up new posts on a weekly basis). So if you don’t want to miss them, simply look to the right hand side of the screen and look a place to “subscribe” to this blog.  You can do that safely, as WordPress will not sell or give your email address to anyone, nor will they bug you either. You will simply get all future blog posts in your mailbox when they come out.  Try it. If later you want to opt out, it’s just as easy.