Editor,
November was National Family Caregivers Month, please join me in asking Congress to support the country’s 16 million Alzheimer’s caregivers. The caregiving needs for someone living with Alzheimer’s or other dementia are extensive, and these caregivers were stretched thin before the pandemic; now, many of them are at a breaking point.
One of the reasons it’s so hard to be an Alzheimer’s caregiver is that most physicians still believe that, because there’s no cure, there’s nothing they can do to help a patient with Alzheimer’s or other dementia. I am/was a caregiver for my mom with early-onset Alzheimer’s and, after giving us the diagnosis, her health care provider sent the notification to Department of Motor Vehicles to “revoke” mom’s license, (stripping her of independence) and then directed us to “start preparing for care and end-of-life needs because she would lose cognitive abilities ‘soon.’” We did not receive a specific timeline for “soon;” the panic that ensued was unlike we had ever experienced, and we were extremely overwhelmed by it all.
The truth is, there is a lot that physicians can and should do to help dementia patients and their caregivers after the diagnosis. Medicare recognized this when it created a new Dementia Care Planning benefit in 2017, which reimburses clinicians for providing nine essential services to people with cognitive impairment and their caregivers. Dementia care planning helps connect Alzheimer’s caregivers with the information and support they need. Studies show that individuals receiving dementia-specific care planning have fewer hospitalizations.
Jasmeen Karan
San Mateo
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