Yvette & Rich
Our biggest concern is not being able to plan for the future for our son.
Family Advocates | Aging Caregivers
Planning for the Future: The Reality Facing Aging Caregivers
Yvette & Rich
After a lifetime of caregiving, Yvette and Rich share the fear many aging parents face: what will happen to their adult child with a disability when they can no longer provide care?
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
When we shared this story in 2022, my husband and I were both 78 years old. We had been caregivers for our 51-year-old son all of his life.
For the previous 10 years, we had also been caregivers for my parents. My father died at 92, and my mother was 98 and still living.
We were beginning to have health issues of our own. Our son was also experiencing health issues. We were stressed and worn out, but our biggest concern was not being able to plan for the future for our son.
At that time, the only way for our son to get access to a residential placement was if we died or became disabled ourselves.
He could then be placed in the first available bed, which might be anywhere in the state.
Can you imagine how traumatic that would be for anyone?
There would be no choice about where he lived or who he lived with, and no way for us to help him gradually adjust to a new living arrangement.
This was the same situation we had faced 20 years earlier.
We have advocated for many years, hoping to improve the lives of people with disabilities and their families. But as aging caregivers ourselves, it has become much more difficult to continue that struggle.
Families need the ability to plan before a crisis happens.
People with disabilities deserve choices about where they live, who supports them, and what their future looks like.
Their families deserve the opportunity to help make that transition thoughtfully, rather than waiting until an emergency makes the decision for them.
