Anne Tumlinson has spent the last two decades working on improving how America cares for its frailest, most vulnerable older adults. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her two children and faithful dog, Sophie.
The National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers (Strategy) is the result of three years of focused effort by two Congressionally mandated advisory councils: They Recognize, Assist, Include, Support, and Engage (RAISE) Act Family Caregiving Advisory Council and The Advisory Council to Support Grandparents Raising Grandchildren (SGRG) (collectively referred to herein as the Advisory Councils)
My recent experience managing home health and hospice for my father has given me insights into the perils that patients and their family caregivers could also face. Before we can migrate more health care into the home, we need to take a hard look at our performance with the current Medicare home-based benefits: home health and hospice.
Sooner or later, most of us will need some long-term care. That might mean help getting to appointments or cooking meals; it could mean help with bathing and dressing from a familiar family member or a paid at home; it could mean months or years in an assisted living facility or nursing home.
But many of us don’t want to talk about the reality, much less plan for it.
These experts are beginning to help families suddenly needing help wading through the thicket of long-term care. “The primary challenge that most of my peers and friends and family were experiencing was entering into that phase of their lives when they were suddenly thrust into family caregiving roles and feeling like there’s no place to go,” said Anne Tumlinson, a Nexus Insights Fellow and a 2018 Next Avenue Influencer In Aging who spawned Nexus’ navigator hub proposal.
