12/31/2006, by Laurie McGinley
For years, Katie Den Ouden, 21, and her brother Christian, 27, of Des Moines, Iowa, have taken turns caring for their mother, who has multiple sclerosis and often has to use a wheelchair. During Ms. Den Ouden's senior year in college, she took online courses from home so her brother could stay in medical school. Earlier, he took a break from school so that she could study in New Zealand.
"The priority has always been Mom," says Ms. Den Ouden, but the caregiving has "made me a lot more stressed."
Congress recently passed legislation authorizing $289 million over five years for states to increase the availability of respite care -- which is aimed at giving family caregivers a break to run errands, see friends, visit their own doctors or just rest.
Some 44 million Americans care for an adult family member who has a chronic illness or disability. The physical and emotional toll is high.
Relief Takes Many Forms
We believe that relief can come in other ways, too-- such as the right, non-invasive monitoring tools that help caregivers know when there's a problem in real-time, leveraging our connected society today-- the web and PDAs, email and cell phones. Watch this space in coming weeks, where we hope to get a conversation going about helping the disabled-- young and old-- live independently, safely and securely, with the minimum burden on their caregivers, whether they be private (friends & family) or public (social workers et al).
Today's technology allows far better choices for the disabled...and far better methods for those who help the disabled.
