Op Ed Piece

(Send this to the editors of your local newspapers. Remember to add your name, your coalition’s name and your contact information.)

Honor Is… Caring For Our Frail and Elderly

The US Census Bureau reports that over two million persons celebrated their 65th birthday in 2000 (5,574 per day). That number increases dramatically every year. In fact, the over-65 population is the fastest-growing segment in the United States. In 1990, in an even older age group, the census reported there were 37,306 persons aged 100 or more and by 2000 that number had jumped to 50,545 - a 35% increase in just 10 years!

These statistics raise the question of who will care for our aging loved ones. Already one out of four households is engaged in caring for an elder or chronically ill person and that number is sure to increase.

To draw attention to this issue, PBS is airing a special documentary, And Thou Shalt Honor… Caring for our Aging Parents, Spouses, and Friends on October 9th at 9:00 PM. As Josefina Carbonell, Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services, said during recent Congressional testimony, “We need to heighten public awareness that caregiving is a public health issue and it needs to be realized as such. Caregiving takes its toll on caregivers, jeopardizing their health and emotional well-being.”

“A second challenge and a primary concern of mine,” said Secretary Carbonell, “is that caregivers often are not aware they are caregivers or that services exist. All too often, a caregiver seeks help only when crisis occurs. I want all caregivers to be aware that help is available through the National Family Caregiver Support Program. Any one of us -- at any time – may be a caregiver to a member of our family. I am one and I know that there are many others like me….”

And Thou Shalt Honor… will help each of us to become more aware of our potential lives as caregivers and it will help us make certain that while taking care of our loved ones we don’t, ourselves, succumb from lack of care. It will also make us more sensitive to the needs of those who are caring for loved ones. We take for granted that our loved ones will always be able to take care of themselves and we don’t realize that one-day we may have to care for them. Neither do we realize that becoming a caregiver is a process that frequently creeps up on us. It may start by taking a loved one to the store once in awhile and then progress to cooking meals for that person on a regular basis and perhaps even to moving in with them or having them move in with us.

A free Viewers Guide accompanies And Thou Shalt Honor… and can be accessed through the Web site at www.pbs.org/thoushalthonor. The Viewers Guide is designed to help each of us begin conversations with our loved ones that will help us better prepare for our future as caregivers or care recipients. The Viewers Guide also suggests discussions that we can have in our workplaces, faith communities, schools or other venues.

The Web site also contains a list of resources and other useful information. With the need for caregiving increasing we need to ask ourselves, “How is our community going to respond to our frail loved ones and those who care for them? How do we define honor?”

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