Isolation

I just read a blog post by Gail Sheehy, author, speaker, caregiver advocate, and general mover & shaker.  Her book, Passages in Caregiving:  Turning Chaos into Confidence, is featured on the Books Page of this website.  Her post is titled, "What can bring caregivers out of the house before they go nuts?"  Yes, the title caught my eye.  It's a wonderful post about a newly formed Caregiver Coalition in Jacksonville, Florida, which recently had a huge Expo for the estimated 150,000 family caregivers in the city.  It was a phenomenal success and the various agencies which form the Coalition are seeing how underserved this segment of the population actually is, and how starved for information.  Sheehy's blog is calling us to action to form similar coalitions all over the country to support the 65 million caregivers -- yes, that number is right!  And, the real consequences to the health, mental, physical & emotional, for these unpaid family caregivers is astronomical.  She cites stress, anxiety, depression, alcohol & substance abuse, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, and the list is endless, as major issues for the 45-55 age group that forms the Boomers caregivers brigade. 

I absolutely and heartily agree!  Having experienced some of these problems first hand, and realizing how deep this need goes, and how many millions of people are affected, if we don't act now, and really grab this tiger by the tail, finding real, practical and accessible solutions, we are going to have a bunch of nutty, stressed out isolated folks on our hands!

Check out the blog at her website:
www.gailsheehy.com/blog/592/what-can-bring-caregivers-out-of-the-house-before-they-go-nuts-