Posted 11/27/23
If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. -James 2:8
Just a head’s up and an invitation…. I will be appearing on a wonderful University of Missouri Extension Podcast this Thursday, 11/30 at noon. (LINK) The session will be called “Living Near and Helping Neighbors With Dementia“. In Missouri alone we have approximately 120,000 people diagnosed with dementia. Had that been a city, it would be ranked around the 5th/6th biggest city, double the population of Joplin. Add on the scores who are not diagnosed, and what we have is a large, and essentially unknown population of folks who reach into all of our neighborhoods. Tack on the fact that there are 6+ million suffering in the United States and estimates say just over one in two Americans know someone with the disease (yet many/most don’t know the very basics of the dementia), and what we have is a big, fat problem. My goals in this podcast time are ambitious, as always. We will start by sharing my mom’s story, then we will discuss briefly the basics of the disease:
- Difference between Dementia and Alzheimer’s (I head long time doctors that flub this one up)
- Briefly, the types of dementia
- The terminal nature of the disease. (There has never been a person that we are aware of that had a documented case of most forms of dementia that it didn’t take from us (unless something else did it first)
- Symptoms/warning signs lists
Then I really want to be as practical as I can be sharing how to be a good neighbor to these folks and their caregivers.
Why now?
First, because I am a believer and believers care not merely because we are supposed to.
Secondly, the scope of the problem is HUGE and needs a HUGE solution…
There are approximately 11 million (!!) folks living as full-time, unpaid caregivers for these folks, 2/3 of whom are women. The value, financially, of this care is $340,000,000,000 (Billion…I had to use all of my fingers) and by 2050 that figure will top $1,000,000,000,000 (Sally explains a trillion in this helpful 1 minute video…I didn’t have enough fingers and toes to count the zeroes here) These neighborhood caregivers are heroes! They are heroes for their loved ones first and foremost as they are doing the very best they can to be a 36-hour per day caregiver (24 hours for their loved one and 12 more for their own lives including sleeping, eating, and trying to otherwise exist). Oh….and some, I hazard a guess to say many, many, many, many, many do it COMPLETELY by themselves. And, did I mention that this is extremely hard work, even with help? It wears me out even doing it part-time. We also fail to notice that these “free” caregivers are also heroes to their neighbors and to the nation merely because of the amount of money and labor they save our already struggling medical system. We need to help these neighbors, even in little ways, to keep pulling this off. In an aging nation, this will only get more critical.
I always relish the time sharing in events like this podcast. Please hop on and watch and share if at all possible! I have followed this website/blog/podcast for a long time. It is wonderful, if sometimes convicting, as I still have a lot of work to do myself in being a better neighbor.
#EndALZ
(Image by HAMED ASAD from Pixabay)
Update:
Mom has been wheezy the last few days and last night she was exceedingly sleepy, so much so that feeding her supper was much more slow going than normal. Hoping and praying for a better night tonight. Probably my biggest concern for mom on a daily basis would be if she should quit eating. That is no way to end a wonderful, if cut short life.
Here is the tri-fold of the MU Extension programs:
One of my favorite Christian videos about neighboring (and mentoring, and loving, and other things…) is this one from DA Carson: