The Imperfect Caregiver

Prepare to Care -What Adult Children Need to Know About Alzheimer’s/Dementia Before and After It Strikes Home

What a great group I had for the debut presentation on October 8th. Right from the start these caring young adults indicated how interested they are in learning more about these dreadful diseases and how to prepare for what may be coming to their families.  The questions and comments kept coming throughout the presentation.

When I became a caregiver I knew it would be hard. But, I had no idea of how difficult it would become, how long I would be doing it, or how much it would change me.  Because of those seven years I have become a caregiver advocate. For those who are caregivers now, I facilitate a caregiver support group and I write this blog. I wrote a book about my experience caring for my father-in-law, a book that has been called brutally honest and portrays me as flawed as I truly am. I wrote it to show people what it’s really like to be a caregiver.   As meaningful as these things are to me, I want to do more to make life better for caregivers and those in their care.

 It is now part of my mission to help adult children Prepare to Care. Although we touched on some very frightening and emotional possibilities you can see from the photo below that the result was a positive one as each participant left more informed and better prepared to face the tough decisions they will be called upon to make in the future.

The Imperfect Caregiver is second from the left in the second row. Her daughter, who is now learning all she can to Prepare to Care, is second from the right in the second row.

While many families now provide home care for relatives and loved ones, the number is expected to significantly increase in the coming years with the aging of the Baby Boomers. According to the Family Caregiver Alliance:

• Approximately 43.5 million caregivers have provided unpaid care to an adult or child in the last 12 months (National Alliance for Caregiving and the AARP)
• About 15.7 million adult family caregivers care for someone who has Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia. [Alzheimer’s Association. (2015). 2015 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures.]

Employers  and civic group leaders interested in arranging a presentation to their employees can reach Bobbi Carducci at bcarducci@comcast.net.