Panel talks toll caregiving takes on women

HYDE PARK – Women, in the all-too-frequent role of caregiver, face a host of challenges, particularly as they age.

Leaders of numerous organizations related to senior citizens including AARP New York, the Dutchess County Office for the Aging, the state Office for the Aging and the area chapter of the Alzheimer's Association, among many others, offered ideas, strategies and solutions to some of those problems in a panel discussion at the Wallace Center at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum on Tuesday in Hyde Park.

"This hits home for all of us," said attendee Catherine Nolan, 75, of Rhinebeck.

Panelists discussed issues from the standpoint of caregivers, who are often daughters, daughters-in-law, granddaughters who outlive the men in their lives and tend to live under more dire circumstances, financially and health-wise, said Assemblywoman Didi Barrett, D-Hudson, who organized the event.

She chairs the Assembly subcommittee on Outreach and Oversight of Senior Citizen Programs.

"We are just exploring all of that through the lens of this as a women's issue," she said.

Mary Kaye Dolan, head of the county Office for the Aging, said 77 percent of informal caregivers are women.

"It's a statistic that resonates with us and the entire county," she said.

Dr. Daniel Aronzon, the former CEO of Vassar Brothers Medical Center in the City of Poughkeepsie, said health care organizations have to work together to provide the services people need in an integrated fashion.

"It's a crazy, crazy system," he said. "Because it's a non-system."

Barrett's challenger in the Nov. 4 general election, county Legislator Michael Kelsey, R-Salt Point, said he's also familiar with caregiver issues as he has served as a court-appointed guardian for an incapacitated person.

"Caretakers of both genders take a heavy toll," he said.

Kelsey said, if elected to the state Assembly, he would work to strengthen local organizations that help seniors.

"A lot of it is not so much new laws or funding, but bringing all the churches and the civic groups in and letting them know, 'Hey, there's a need here. How can we all help out?' " he said.

Emily Stewart: 845-437-4882; estewart@poughkeepsiejournal.com; Twitter: @estwrt

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