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| Suzanne Mintz, President and Co-Founder of the National Family Caregivers Association (NFCA) with her husband, Steven |
“You
are not alone. There are more than 65 million Americans who provide care
for a chronically ill, disabled, or aged love one. We have a common
bond. We all feel isolated, scared, concerned about our own health and
future and finances.” -Suzanne Mintz
Today
marks the last day of National Family Caregivers Month. The roots of
National Family Caregivers Month can be traced back to 1994, when the National Family Caregivers Association (NFCA)
began advocating for the celebration of family caregivers during Thanksgiving
week. The first Presidential proclamation addressing the week was signed
in 1997 and in 1999 National Family Caregivers Week grew to National Family
Caregivers Month.
The
President and Co-Founder of NFCA, Suzanne Mintz, became a caregiver at the age
of 28. It was 1974 and her husband Steven was diagnosed with progressive
MS at the age of 31. The diagnosis sent Suzanne and her husband on an
emotional roller coaster. Suzanne says, “it took us 20 years of turmoil
before we came to terms with it and figured out how to live together
peacefully, each dealing with it in our own way but also—and this is very
important—learning to respect the other person’s approach to dealing with it.”
In
1993, 20 years after Steven was diagnosed with MS, Suzanne founded NFCA with
her friend and fellow caregiver, Cindy Fowler. Cindy was caring for her
mother with Parkinson’s Disease. Suzanne traces the beginning of the NFCA
to “a conversation [Cindy and I] had that showed us that despite the obvious
differences in relationships and diagnoses, Cindy and I were dealing with a lot
of the same issues. It was the awareness of this common bond that set us on our
path, first to create the newsletter TAKE CARE!, and then to become the
National Family Caregivers Association.”
The
Society works closely with NFCA and other family-focused organizations to
advance policies and programs that help mitigate the physical, emotional, and
financial toll of family caregiving. At the 2012 Public Policy Conference for
example, MS activists urged Congress to provide $5 million for the Lifespan Respite Care Program that improves access to respite care.
Though appropriations aren't yet finalized, in June, the Senate
Appropriations Committee released their funding recommendations which included $4.99 million penciled in for the Lifespan Respite Care
Program.
The
financial impact of family caregiving was addressed in a Washington Post column earlier this month. In the article, columnist Michelle Singletary shares
her personal story as a family caregiver and urges the nation to invest in
family caregiving.
In this year’s Presidential Proclamation declaring
November as National Family Caregivers Month,
President Obama recognized that, “National Family Caregivers Month is a time to reflect
on the compassion and dedication that family caregivers embody every day. As we
offer our appreciation and admiration for their difficult work, let us also
extend our own offers of support to them and their loved ones.”
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