GWEN IFILL: New research suggests there may be some good news in the struggle against dementia.
Two recently released studies show severe memory loss declining among
healthier and better educated populations. In England and in Wales,
dementia rates over the last two decades have dropped by 25 percent
among those 65 and older.
And in Denmark, the percentage of elderly whose cognitive abilities were severely impaired also dropped between 1998 and 2010.
In the United States, about five million people have Alzheimer's
disease, but that number is expected to rise sharply as baby boomers
age.
>>> If you are a caregiver of an individual and need help with any aspect of their care, from companion care to skilled nursing in the home, give us a call at Bright Star Care - Jupiter
REBECCA WYANT, Caregiver: This is my mother, Mary
Elizabeth Wyant. She is 74 years old and was diagnosed with Alzheimer's
at the age of 65. She is a retired professional artist and a former
professor at the University of Arizona.
My name is Rebecca Wyant. And I'm her youngest daughter and her primary caregiver and guardian.
RAY SUAREZ: It's been nine years since
Mary Wyant was first diagnosed with Alzheimer's. In 2006, she moved in
with her daughter, making Rebecca part of a growing population of
Americans, now nearly one in five adults, who provide unpaid care for
family members over the age of 50.
Rebecca says her mother used to be a fun-loving and vibrant artist who was always at the center of attention. REBECCA WYANT: Very creative, very outgoing, very
gregarious, very much a social butterfly, just really liked to be around
people. And she could take nothing and create something magnificent
from that, so very smart. But more, I think, anything, it was just her
energy and her social skills and her ability to engage with people, with
anybody. RAY SUAREZ: Today, that Mary still comes out from
time to time, but often it's seen only in short spurts and can be
followed by rapid mood swings, incoherent outbursts and blank stares.
Mary exhibits all the symptoms of what the Alzheimer's Association
has called the defining disease of baby boomers, with 10 million in that
age group expected to develop this form of dementia in the coming
years.
Jeanette Wendt is Mary's neurologist.
DR. JEANETTE WENDT, Neurologist: She has very severe
language difficulties and has very severe memory problems and really
has the inability to take care of herself in almost all aspects. RAY SUAREZ: Moving to Tucson was a homecoming of
sorts for Mary, who had raised her daughters there, but had been living
in Central America with her second husband. When the marriage fell
apart, Rebecca became Mary's legal guardian and her primary caregiver.
Rebecca, who is 48 years old and unmarried, is now on call from the
moment Mary wakes up every morning, getting her mother out of bed and
dressed, and then helping to brush her teeth, combing her hair and
figuring out new strategies for medication. REBECCA WYANT: You're going to choke on them. Here. RAY SUAREZ: It can be stressful and difficult. REBECCA WYANT: It's a 115-pound 2-year-old who is not potty-trained. RAY SUAREZ: Even awkward at times in public. REBECCA WYANT: People still when they talk to her
speak in a very loud voice, because they think people with Alzheimer's
can't hear. Or they speak very slowly. And I try and explain to them
she's not understanding what you are saying, so you don't have to worry
about that. I mean, just speak in your normal voice and just go with the
flow.
But it's very uncomfortable for a lot of people, because they don't
understand the disease. And the problem is, for every single person with
Alzheimer's, it's totally different. RAY SUAREZ: But Rebecca says people need to
understand that her family's situation, all of it, is normal, and not
without its special moments. REBECCA WYANT: Every now and then, she will -- I
don't know what sparks in her mind, but she will just say -- she will
say, "Oh," and she will turn and she will look at me and she has
something to say to me. You can just see it in her face, and then it's
gone. But, for that moment, you just know, I know she's still in there.
So when she manages to let a little bit of that out, it's wonderful. RAY SUAREZ: Rebecca owns a self-serve dog wash and
retail business, and brings Mary to work, where she will stay until the
shop closes in the evening. It's round-the-clock care that Rebecca says
she was willing to take on for one simple reason. REBECCA WYANT: Nobody can take care of my mother the
way I can. Nobody understands my mother the way I do. And someone can
take care of her and provide sustenance, but no one can take care of my
mother the way I can. RAY SUAREZ: And the experiences of the Wyant family
will likely be shared by millions in the coming decades. The number of
Americans 65 and older is expected to more than double in the next 40
years, due in large part to aging baby boomers.
The government estimates 70 percent of those over the age of 65 will
need some form of long-term care. But a recent poll conducted by the
Associated Press and the National Opinion Research Center found nearly
two-thirds of Americans over the age of 40 have done little or no
planning for their potential long-term care needs, such as setting aside
money or talking with family members about how they want to be cared
for.
That survey was funded by the SCAN Foundation, which is a NewsHour underwriter.
Again, Dr. Jeanette Wendt: JEANETTE WENDT: The vast majority have not thought
about it and have not made plans. Even if they have an inkling or they
even in their heart know that's what's going on, one, they don't want to
address it with the person who has the problem. RAY SUAREZ: And until it became clear Mary would need long-term care, the Wyants hadn't discussed the subject either. REBECCA WYANT: There was really no long-term
planning. It was just like, right now, what do we have to do? Right now,
someone's got to be her guardian, because I have got to have the
ability to make decisions for her on any level. And we didn't want to
wait until it got so bad. RAY SUAREZ: The issues around aging are easy to
ignore and often difficult to talk about and address, but communities
around the country, including Tucson, have long had federally funded
programs that are supposed to help people like the Wyants.
In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Older Americans Act,
which provided for the creation of a national network of agencies on
aging to support community social services for older people.
Tucson's Pima Council on Aging is one, with caregiver specialists like Suzy Bourque. SUZY BOURQUE, Pima Council on Aging: Often, people
will come in for a parent, but then they will think, OK, this tells me, I
need to do my own powers of attorney. I need to think about how I'm
going to pay for long-term care. So, I think most people, they need to
think about the fact that whatever care they may develop a need for is
going to be very costly. RAY SUAREZ: Bourque also connects caregivers to
experts and services, and Rebecca has contacted the agency several times
with basic questions. But like many organizations dealing with budget
cuts, this one has to do what it can with less. It's had to cut back on
how many people it serves. SUZY BOURQUE: The population of the, you know, over
60 in Tucson has greatly increased. So we're not meeting the need even
as well as we did 20 years ago. RAY SUAREZ: That means caregivers like Rebecca Wyant often must navigate a complicated and opaque health care system practically alone.
Rebecca had been paying for Mary's care with her own earnings and
with her mother's assets. But when Mary's money was gone, she qualified
for financial assistance through Arizona's Long Term Care program, but
the enrollment process took several years. Now the state pays Rebecca
for some of the time she spends looking after her mother, 14 hours each
week, or roughly $500 dollars a month. It's a small amount, but money
Rebecca says she is immensely grateful for. REBECCA WYANT: I'm not being paid by someone else. I
don't have a paycheck that I bring home every two weeks. I don't have
benefits that I receive from an employer. If the business makes some
money, that doesn't necessarily come to me. It goes back into the
business, so any little bit helps. RAY SUAREZ: But long-term care doesn't just exhaust
financial resources. Dr. Wendt is concerned that, like many full-time
caregivers, Rebecca may be putting her own health at risk. JEANETTE WENDT: She's a great caregiver, but I think
she is at great risk of burnout, because you never know what they are
going to do in the middle of the night. You never know if they are going
to get up and try to leave the house or turn the stove on and try to
make something, or burn the house down. I mean, it's really always on
edge. And so it's extremely stressful. REBECCA WYANT: It's not always perfect, but she's my
mother. And so that's the way you have to look at this disease. You
can't dwell on what was or what might be. It's what it is today. And so
she's alive. She's functioning. She's getting up. She's moving around.
She has happy moments and not-so-happy moments, but it's not a sad
situation. RAY SUAREZ: Rebecca plans to take care of Mary for as long as she possibly can, even if she has to sell her business to do it.
