Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, at 96 years old, has entered home hospice care along with former President Jimmy Carter, 99, The Carter Center announced Friday.
It was this past May when the family disclosed that Mrs. Carter has dementia.
Mr. Carter entered home hospice three months earlier, in February, because of on-going health issues unrelated to dementia.
Those who care for people with dementia say the announcement about Mrs. Carter entering hospice is helping families of dementia patients know that hospice can provide the best care for their older loved ones in the later stages of the disease, when approved by their family physicians.
Mrs. Carter has devoted her adult life to serving and helping people— in partnership with her husband and independently.
Now, Rosalynn Carter and her family are helping again.
“The Carter family has been great about helping with the stigma with hospice,” said Kimberly Blackstock with the Alzheimer’s Association in Atlanta.
Blackstock said Friday that Mrs. Carter is basically showing families, who are caring for loved ones with dementia, that hospice can provide the support they and their loved ones need most-- when they need it the most.
And Blackstock said hospice is 100 percent covered by Medicaid and Medicare.
“They get round-the-clock care through nursing, 24-hour on-call,” Blackstock said. “They have CNAs (certified nursing assistants) that come and help bathe them, dress them and take some of that care off of the caregiver.... The family support from the hospice organization is so great, to help them cope and make sure that everything is ready and prepared as they go through the stages of the disease. Some people can be on service for over a year. Some people, it might be only weeks. It helps and supports the family, and they walk through this journey together. But it is a very intimate journey.”
It is a journey that Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter, married 77 years, are now taking together.
It is a journey that families throughout Georgia know well.
“Right now in the state of Georgia, we have 343,000 caregivers--family and friends that are taking care of their loved ones that are living with Alzheimer's and other dementia,” Blackstock said. “And it's easy to get burned out from it. I tell everybody to talk to their primary physician about when to move their loved one to hospice. It is very hard to make that decision.”
But she said when a family does make that decision to provide hospice care for their loved one, when their physician says it’s time, “you can start seeing a glow coming back in them. Because they know that they're not going through this alone, that there are other people out there going through it and that are there 24/7 to support them through this.”
There are many services available to families who need information on what to do for their older loved ones and how they can get help.
The Alzheimer’s Association, for example, provides a free Helpline 24 hours a day that families can call with any questions they have about dementia care. The people answering the Helpline are Master’s-level social workers, and can provide one-on-one care consultations to help families through all stages of their loved ones' dementia. The Helpline number is 800-272-3900.