April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
SUPPORT SYSTEM
Caregivers seek help from Catholic Charities
She shaves him, mashes his six pills and prepares his breakfast, responding with patience to his tantrums and confusion.
Annabelle and Maurice Weiner, both 79, have been married 59 years, the majority of which he treated her "like a queen." Now, she tries to remind herself he's not the same person he was before he developed Alzheimer's disease about 10 years ago.
"He doesn't know who I am," Mrs. Weiner told The Evangelist. "It's a very insidious disease."
A progressive, irreversible neurological disorder, symptoms of Alzheimer's include gradual memory loss, impaired judgment, disorientation, personality change and loss of language skills.
Family caregivers in the Albany Diocese often search for help from counties, nonprofit groups and healthcare organizations with volunteer respite teams.
For instance, Catholic Charities Caregivers Support Services supported about 400 area caregivers in 2009 with companions, home health aides, adult day care, assisted living services or nursing home respite care.
If caregivers experience a health emergency, hospitals can page the organization 24 hours a day for respite care.
Respite threatened
Mrs. Weiner receives a small Catholic Charities grant that covers about 21 hours of day care per year for her husband. But funding for such grants declined this year, said Renee Goldsmith Benson, executive director of Caregivers Support Services.
Mrs. Benson cited the loss of New York State Senate and Assembly member items that had totaled close to $80,000 in previous years. Though private donors, county subcontracts and some other grants have remained stable, Catholic Charities has had to reduce its respite care grants.
Meanwhile, demand for assistance continues to rise, making caregiving a public health concern, Mrs. Benson said.
Compared to the general population, informal caregivers risk higher levels of depression and chronic conditions like heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and arthritis, according to a 2007 article in the American Journal of Public Health.
Such caregivers usually neglect their own care, the article stated, and are more likely to lack health insurance coverage due to time out of the work force.
Invisible crisis
"It's very invisible," Mrs. Benson stated. "It's part of our culture that people take care of their families."
To address needs while waiting for additional funding, Caregivers Support Services is collaborating with the state to start a program that would pay friends and neighbors of caregivers to provide respite. That will cost less than brokering to licensed agencies.
Additionally, the Catholic Charities agency recently began training former caregivers to become volunteer mentors to current caregivers. That program will launch at the end of the year.
Mrs. Weiner, who lives in Latham with her daughter and son-in-law and their children, already started training to become a mentor - though she admits she needs to be mentored, too.
Talk it out
"I needed somebody to talk to when I had bad moments," she said.
She's worn out from the morning routine, from running errands while Mr. Weiner is at day care and from making dinner. At night, she keeps her husband busy with music, television and card games - anything to keep him from getting frustrated or threatening to leave the house.
There's not much spare time for herself: "I really feel like a part of my life has disappeared," Mrs. Weiner remarked. "And I'm a social person."
Support groups sponsored by churches, towns, counties and Catholic Charities sometimes ease concerns about caregivers and their loved ones. Mrs. Weiner's involvement in one such group gave her a network of fellow caregivers to call on when she needs to vent.
Susan Rizzo, a caregiver who quit her job in Arizona and moved in with her parents in Albany in 2009, plans to attend a support group as soon as she finds time.
"Sometimes you just have to talk and people just need to listen," Ms. Rizzo said. Her mother, 89, was diagnosed with terminal cancer last fall; her father, 93, suffers from Alzheimer's disease.
Charitable concern
Catholic Charities helped financially when Ms. Rizzo sought non-medical respite care for her father, enabling her to do Christmas shopping. Catholic Charities also directed her to other resources when she wanted to install a chair lift in the house.
Ms. Rizzo has hired personal care aides after a long search for compatible individuals. She has also dealt with many questions: "Should we take away his [driver's] license? What happens if he falls out of bed? What should I expect as the disease progresses?"
The ultimate support group for Ms. Rizzo is her parish, St. Francis of Assisi in Albany, where she attends the Mass her mother previously attended. The pastoral care associate there, Sister Phyllis Mauger, CSJ, brings communion to Ms. Rizzo's mother at home and sits with the caregiver in church.
Ms. Rizzo takes comfort in parishioners' kind words and her faith in God.
"I always pray for my parents and for me getting along with my brothers and sisters," she said. "God guides me. People say I'm lucky, and I say, 'It has nothing to do with luck.'"[[In-content Ad]]
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