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Aging
baby boomers confront cost,
effects
of Alzheimer's Six
years ago, John Durand managed a day-care facility and honed culinary
skills in his spare time. Now, the 58-year-old Durand
has frontal lobe dementia, a neurological disease that is robbing him of
his memory. It has also taken his livelihood. He was forced to give up his
management job due to depression, a symptom of his illness. With two
children at home and mounting bills, the burden of supporting the family
shifted to his wife, Peggi Stallings Durand, 52. The
switch from gainfully employed family man to dependent spouse was
devastating, said Durand. ''For
whatever reason, men define their lives by their employment or what they
are doing in life,'' he said. ''Because they do that, all their
acquaintances and friends tend to come from work. You lose that if you
have to give up a significant career. All the things you knew you were and
that you were appreciated for aren't there anymore.'' Though
his brain condition is rare, Durand's experiences are not. Currently, 4.5
million Americans have Alzheimer's disease, according to the Massachusetts
Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association. Of those, up to 450,000 people are
individuals under the age of 65 who suffer from memory disorders including
frontal lobe dementia, conditions that impact memory and behavior. Alzheimer's
disease or another dementia will dramatically increase over the next 15
years, increasing to 6 million nationwide, said Paul Raia, director of
patient care at the chapter. In Specialists
say the increased numbers will exact an economic toll on workers and
employers. The average caregiver forfeits more than $659,000 in income and
retirement benefits over his or her lifetime while caring for sick family
members, according to the National Alliance for Caregiving. These figures
include all types of caregiving, including help for relatives with
Alzheimer's. Those
financial costs will multiply as the population ages, said Koppel, who
believes employers could retain valuable employees by developing flexible
schedules, elder-care referral services, and alternative work arrangements
for those who are caring for ailing spouses or parents with dementia. Some
employers are paying attention. Twenty percent of US companies offer
services to help workers with caregiving responsibilities, reports the
Society for Human Resource Management. By 2005, an additional 10 percent
are expected to offer services. At Arnold Worldwide, a ''When
the worker calls, the counselor will help them identify the services they
need,'' said Maurice Haynes, Peggi
Durand hasn't asked her workplace for assistance yet, but she knows she
will have to eventually. A family therapist, her work schedule is flexible
enough to allow her to care for a teenage son and drive her husband to his
medical appointments. A daughter is in college. ''I
am looking at the fact that, at some time, I will have to take an extended
leave from work,'' she said. ''That would not be fully paid. The leave
would be paid for with whatever accumulated sick days I have and maybe
some vacation time. I haven't had to take a month off for anything yet,
but I know that as John's disease progresses there will be more and more
things that he cannot handle.'' Durand's
ordeal began in 1993, when he became depressed and had to quit his
day-care management job. He later took a position as a public housing
advocate for ''He
would plan a route, but if you asked him how to get from one place to
another, he could tell you but he could no longer to do it,'' said Peggi
Durand. She said it would take her husband three hours to complete a
20-minute delivery. Today,
Durand spends three days a week at the Rogerson House in Jamaica Plain.
The facility, which operates a day center for Friends
at the Durand family's church raised money to help finance John Durand's
visits to the Rogerson House. ''Painting
has become a replacement for work,'' he said in an interview at the
Jamaica Plain center. ''I only paint here. I don't paint at home. That
makes this place special, and it gives me a reason to come here.'' Said
Peggi Durand: ''John was a very good administrator. He loved it and he was
very competent. But now he has trouble finding things that he feels
competent doing. Painting has helped. He had an art show last spring.
People bought some of his paintings and that replaced some of the, 'I
can't work anymore' feelings he was having. It also helped him get back
some of the things he had valued at work.'' While
her husband tries to exert some control over his life, Peggi Durand
worries about finances. Bills that were taken care of immediately are
sometimes paid late because of unforeseen expenses. A $100,000 equity line
against the couple's single-family home has helped defray some of the
costs, but she can't stop wondering about the future. ''We've lost a whole functioning adult and that has added stress to me and the kids,'' she said. ''The human needs in the family have increased so dramatically that things I never would have put on the back burner in the past are now ending up there.'' Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging |
