Fewer able to care for relatives with Alzheimer’s
The cost will shift to the government, report warns
Daisy Duarte chose to sell her Cubs sports bar seven years ago when her mother, Sonia Cardona, then 55, was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease.
Duarte, of Springfield, Mo., has cared for Cardona ever since, praying with her twice a day and making sure she gets moved from her bed to a recliner so she can see a little of the world to which she no longer responds.
“I gave her a run for her money; she can give me a run for mine,” said Duarte, who once promised her mother that she would never put her in a nursing home.
But Duarte might be a member of a shrinking population, according to a new report — those with the ability to care for loved ones with Alzheimer’s.
American families are having fewer children and are more likely to be divorced or estranged and have fewer financial resources, Nick Eberstadt, an economist, wrote in a report being released Wednesday by advocacy group UsAgainstAlzheimer’s.
And although the country as a whole is incredibly wealthy, the typical family is not: Nearly half of all American families say they would be unable to afford a surprise $400 bill, according to the Federal Reserve.
These families simply won’t be able to afford to care for aging loved ones, and the burden will necessarily shift to the government — a costly trend the government hasn’t planned for, said Eberstadt, who also works for the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative-leaning think-tank.
“American families and ... Medicare and Medicaid are simply not prepared to cope with the growing numbers of people with this disease,” added George Vradenburg, co-founder and chairman of UsAgainstAlzheimer’s.
The good news is that fewer 75-yearolds are getting the disease — likely because of better cardiovascular care, more education and less smoking. The bad news is that more people are living to 85, and roughly half of them will de- velop Alzheimer’s, statistics show.
The disease is fatal, but it can take eight to 10 years to kill, Vradenburg said, imposing a huge emotional, physical and financial burden in the meantime. That burden often falls on people in mid-life who are simultaneously caring for their own children and approaching retirement so they have to balance competing financial priorities, Vradenburg said.
Families with a number of children can theoretically spread that burden around, but they also must deal with different priorities around caregiving and their ability to contribute financial- ly or with time, he said.
It’s not clear that keeping a patient at home, giving up a career like Duarte’s, is cheaper for society than putting the person in a nursing home where one aide can manage several patients, said Michael Hurd, an economist with the RAND Corp., a non-profit, non-partisan research organization.
Hurd agrees that families have gotten smaller since the Baby Boomers, but he thinks families will still care for loved ones — “the ties of blood will still be there” — though statistics show that daughters-in-law are less inclined to take care of their husband’s mother than their own.
“It does seem safe to say that we’re going to have very substantial problems in this area,” Hurd said.
There are still significant unknowns ahead, he said. Obesity and diabetes are rising and beginning to shorten lives. If fewer people make it to 85, there will likely be fewer Alzheimer’s patients. The lifespan of those who end up in nursing homes might also change if improvements in care extend lives, he said. And there’s always the possibility that someone will develop a cure or a way to defer Alzheimer’s disease, reducing the long-term burden.
Duarte, 41, whose genes have destined her to get early-onset Alzheimer’s herself, is participating in a research study, testing an experimental drug that will hopefully postpone her fate.
If that drug doesn’t work, “there’s got to be something else to get into,” said Duarte who also volunteers as an advocate for UsAgainstAlzheimer’s. “I’d rather die trying to find a cure than die without doing anything to find a cure.”