The other day, I mentioned my friend, who has an adult child that is ill. This recent change of events has put her in a role that millions of us find ourselves in each year, becoming a caregiver. Whether it is an aging parent, a sick family member and or everything in between. The question becomes, who cares for the caregiver?
This was a question asked by two friends, Suzanne Mintz and Cindy Fowler, over twenty years ago. The two were discussing their similar roles with Suzanne caring for her husband with MS and Cindy caring for a mother with Parkinson’s. Their conversation led to the realization that there must be others in the same situation. They were right, it turns out that there were 65 million caregivers in this country.
The two made it their mission to provide support to others who may not know how to reach out for help and who did not even know the phrase “family caregiver.” The result was their founding the National Family Caregivers Association (NFCA) in 1993. “Our original vision was to get information and resources into people’s hands and to let them know they weren’t alone,” according to Fowler. NCFA focused on providing a voice for caregivers that would enable them to speak up and get the help they need.
As Suzanne Mintz recalled: “We wondered why no one seemed to be focused on the fact that helping a loved one with a deteriorating illness had a very real impact on not only the person with the illness, but also on those of us who were primarily responsible for helping them.”
For the celebration of the National Family Caregivers Association 20th anniversary, they renamed their non-profit to the Caregiver Action Network or CAN. These two women took their challenges and turned them into an awareness, a non-profit and a movement to inform each of us that family caregiving is a lifespan issue, not one restricted to the aging community.
They are an inspiration and their newly named organization CAN, simply says it all.
Charity Matters.
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