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Bridget Quinn is the AARP Maine associate state director for advocacy and outreach.
November is National Family Caregivers Month, a time to recognize the people who quietly do extraordinary things every day for someone they love.
Across Maine, family caregivers help aging parents, spouses, friends and other loved ones live safely and independently at home. They prepare meals, provide transportation, manage medications, and take on countless other responsibilities. They do this not because it is their job, but because someone they love needs them.
In Maine, nearly three in 10 adults are family caregivers or have provided care within the past year. Together, that represents more than 300,000 people helping loved ones remain in their homes and communities, where they want to be.
These caregivers deserve our gratitude. They also deserve our support.
Caregiving can be deeply rewarding, but it can also take a toll that can include a physical emotional and even financial effect. Consider, for example, that according to the latest AARP “Valuing the Invaluable” report, caregiving has become more demanding and complex as chronic illnesses rise and more care shifts into homes. In fact, family caregivers are spending more time providing care, averaging 27 hours each week. More than half, 57%, now provide high-intensity care meaning they spend more hours helping with daily tasks like bathing and dressing as well as complex medical and nursing tasks like wound care and administering injections.
In addition, many family caregivers are balancing caregiving with full- or part-time jobs. Some are raising children at the same time. Others suddenly find themselves navigating complicated health care systems and making difficult decisions they never expected to face.
No one should have to navigate those challenges alone.
At AARP Maine, we are committed to being in the corner of family caregivers, both by fighting for policies that make their lives easier and by connecting them with practical resources they can use today.
That commitment is one reason AARP Maine advocated for paid family and medical leave. No caregiver should have to worry about being able to care for a loved one or keeping their job.
Maine’s Paid Family and Medical Leave program gives eligible workers access to paid, job-protected leave for circumstances including caring for a loved one with a serious health condition. It represents an important step toward helping Maine people balance the responsibilities of work and family without having to choose between caring for someone they love and protecting their own financial security.
But policy is only part of what caregivers need. Sometimes what matters most is knowing where to turn for help right now.
AARP Maine offers a free Maine Family Caregiver Resource Guide to help. Whether you are stepping into a caregiving role for the first time or have been providing care for years, the guide can connect you with information about caregiver support, transportation, respite care, legal and financial resources and other programs across Maine.
We have also partnered with 2-1-1 Maine to make finding local help easier. Caregivers can contact 2-1-1 and connect with trained specialists who can help identify resources available in their own communities.
Caregiving will touch nearly every Maine family at some point. As our state grows older, supporting the people who make it possible for loved ones to remain at home will only become more important.
This National Family Caregivers Month, let’s thank Maine’s caregivers and fight for commonsense solutions that offer meaningful support. If you are caring for someone you love, you are not alone. Learn about paid family and medical leave, download the Maine Family Caregiver Resource Guide, explore caregiving tools and find local assistance through 2-1-1 Maine at aarp.org/mecares.
We are all in this together.