When Marlene Richards took responsibility for caring for her partner with Alzheimer’s, it changed her life. But she found help — and now more people can, too.
Richards signed up with AgeSpan, a private nonprofit that supports people with challenges and their caregivers. Richards found counseling, safety devices, like a stair lift installation in her home, and overall support that helped her manage her partner’s care and her own well-being.
“One of the things I learned was that the first to die is generally the caregiver, not the patient,” she said. “That was a wake-up call.” Richard continued: “The biggest challenge is taking care of yourself, and it’s the most important one because there just was no energy left at the end of the day for me. (There is) constant worry and fear…. I think that the biggest problem our society has right now is that there’s so many people with Alzheimer’s and dementia. The caregiver is just expected to be the hero and take care of all the problems and do it with a smile.”
Richards, who lives in Billerica, learned about AgeSpan through her local senior center. Now, AgeSpan is coming to the North Shore, including Marblehead. The agency was recently awarded a $62,000 grant from the state.
Crystal Polizzotti, director of AgeSpan’s Family Caregiver Support Program, encourages people to apply for assistance. AgeSpan can provide caregivers everything from guidance on long-term care and finances to house cleaners and dogwalkers.
“We have very minimum eligibility requirements around this program, no income requirements, only that the family caregiver is 18+ and either they or their care recipient lives within one of our 28 cities and towns,” Polizzotti said.
“The person they’re caring for can still be living at home; they can be in assisted living or a skilled nursing facility.
We know that caregiving is a 24/7 job whether you’re with your care recipient or not,” she added. “This program was
developed in the early 2010s because we realized that nobody was checking in on the family caregivers who were doing this hard work day-in and day-out and we have a professionally trained team.”
Polizzotti said people should know they are not alone.
“We’re entering a phase where we’re about to have the biggest population of folks over the age of 65 and so we have a lot of older adults from the baby boom. A large population now needs the care and we’re thinking about one-in-four people have some level of cognitive impairment, so it’s very common,” she said.
Marblehead caregivers can visit AgeSpan.org to learn more about available resources.
