One of the upsides of the Covid-19 pandemic was that many family caregivers could work from home and better balance caregiving responsibilities. As adult day care centers and respite centers shut down, family caregivers became even more important to people living with dementia. It was not easy balancing caregiving responsibilities […]
Frontotemporal Dementia & The Jerk Factor When I say “dementia,” most people think “Alzheimer’s Disease.” The truth is that in people under 65, the more common dementia is “frontotemporal dementia” for FTD. FTD refers to a spectrum of neurodegenerative diseases that include behavioral, motor, and/or speech symptoms. The one I am talking […]
The National Institutes of Health just released a paper on the needs of the caregiver “workforce.” Here are some highlights from the report: Today family caregivers provide 80% of the care for persons with dementia. 16 million informal caregivers provide approximately 18 billion hours of unpaid care to persons with […]
The combined indirect and direct care costs associated with FTD averaged $120K annually, compared to the average annual indirect and direct care costs of caregiving for AD, $64K. Flexible work schedules and pre-tax health savings accounts for caregiving expenses are two ideas that would make life better for family caregivers.