Think of the giant industries built around marriage, child-rearing or setting up a home: Each has a wealth of books, magazines, celebrity experts, websites, dedicated brands, even retail stores. Then try to think of the equivalent for in-home caregiving. Right.
Unlike other major life transitions, there is precious little infrastructure to guide someone who must make long-term adjustments to their home, career, schedule and finances to care for an aging parent or another loved one. Compounding the issue is that caregiving situations often emerge without much time for planning.
“What do you do when your parents’ health is literally falling apart and somebody has to take care of them?” asks Kitty Eisele, a longtime NPR journalist and host of Twenty-Four Seven: A Podcast About Caregiving. After her father’s health declined, Eisele moved into his suburban Washington, D.C., home to care for him. “I was starting to feel really overwhelmed. Like, where’s the road map for this? Isn’t there someone who’s supposed to be in charge?”
Looking to the federal government will lead a caregiver into a labyrinth. The Department of Health and Human Services, a logical place to start, lists Resources for Caregivers, with links to Alzheimers.gov, Medicare.gov, the National Institute on Aging and the Administration for Community Living (ACL). Few would know that the ACL, and its subsidiary operation, the Administration...
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