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Alzheimer's Association
- California Southland Chapter
- 24/7 Helpline 1-800-272-3900
- www.alz.org/socal
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- Missing persons often turn out to be Alzheimer's patients
PASADENA -- Debbie Lewis, 58, abandoned her life and has almost exhausted her life savings to take care of her 85-year-old mother, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease.
Theresa Piscitello was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease four years ago. Before Lewis became a full-time caregiver, she lived in San Diego County, worked as an office manager and lived in an apartment with her then 21-year-old daughter. But after three years of commuting to her mother's house in the West Hills on the weekends, Lewis left her job and life in San Diego to take care of her mother.
"I didn't realize it would be this hard," Lewis said. "I thought it would be easy. I'll just stay at home. I thought maybe she'll repeat herself a few times, but the first time my mother didn't remember who I was - it floored me. I was hysterical when I finally reached out to Alzheimer's Association (three weeks later)," she said, referring to a nonprofit which gave her advice, referred her to professionals and helped her find an understanding cohort who shared her tribulations.
With the first Baby Boomers reaching age 65 in 2011, the number of people with Alzheimer's is expected to skyrocket.
An estimated 5.2 million Americans have the debilitating disease, and that number is expected to triple by 2050, reported the California Department of Public Health. In California alone, the Alzheimer's Association reported that nearly 680,000 people will have Alzheimer's in 2015. This amount
will increase 62 percent to 1.1 million by 2030, according to a 2009 report.
"Every 68 seconds, someone in the United States develops Alzheimer's," said Susan Galeas, the president and CEO of the Alzheimer's Association. "One in eight people over the age of 65 will have Alzheimer's. It is the sixth leading cause of death and the only one of the top 10 that cannot be prevented, treated or slowed. Alzheimer's is an equal opportunity disease and has reached epidemic proportions."
The neuron malfunctioning disease affects people differently and progresses at different rates; however, severe forms require daily supervision from a caregiver because these patients need help with daily activities. In the final stages, they lose the ability to communicate and become bedridden.
So in 2012, more than 1.5 million Alzheimer's and dementia caregivers in California provided more than 1.7 billion hours of unpaid care valued at about $21.5 billion, according to the Alzheimer's Association. That's almost as much as the total sales McDonald's made in 2011, some $27 billion, reported the nonprofit.
The stress and frustration Alzheimer's caregivers experience has been brought into the limelight because Dan Crabtree, a Hacienda Heights resident, fatally shot his daughter-in-law, 62-year-old Rita Delehanty, in a murder-suicide on Wednesday.
Jim Crabtree said Delehanty, his wife, was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's when she was 56. She worked as a nurse for more than 30 years before the symptoms took their toll.
"My wife didn't know who I was," said Crabtree. "You try to help her and she yells. She screams; she hits you," he said, still referring to her in the present tense.
Crabtree said he spent $2,000 a month for a caregiver to come to his home on Poplar Street in Hacienda Heights. However, during the weekdays, when he went to work at the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, he often left Delehanty with his father and mother at their Ladysmith Avenue home, the scene of the murder-suicide.
Crabtree said he had to adjust his life when his wife began showing symptoms. He put off all his other activities, such as hobbies and travel. He practically could not leave her side.
"Have you ever seen someone cry six to 12 hours at a crack?" he told the news media. "Until you've lived it, you don't get it."
Dr. Debra Cherry, the executive vice president of the California Southland Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association, said Dan Crabtree's aggression was an anomaly.
"It is common to feel a great deal of stress," said Cherry, who has worked as a geriatric clinical psychologist for more than two decades. "Caregivers of people with severe Alzheimer's have a higher mortality rate, but there are things they could do to manage that stress and very few people resort to suicide or homicide. The most important message is to don't try to do it yourself."
Juxtaposed next to Crabtree's case, Lewis's situation seems mild; however, without any source of income, Lewis said her life savings will probably only last another three months, though she admitted that as a single mother, she didn't have that much to begin with.
Helping her mother bathe and do daily tasks gave Lewis back pain. She said some days she doesn't get any sleep because her mother sometimes wakes up at night, gets dressed and decides to start cooking. Then there was the depression. Though Lewis took anti-depressants before becoming a caregiver, she has now doubled her dosage.
"What stressed me out was I'm not only getting up and getting myself ready every morning," Lewis said. "Every day I have to help someone else get up, brush their teeth, get their makeup on. I have to listen to them, feed them, and it gets on your nerves sometimes. When you're doing it 24-7 and when you don't have a day off - people don't realize or appreciate their time until they don't have it anymore."
Dr. Linda Ercoli, an assistant professor of psychiatry at UCLA who works with caregivers, said many times people focus on the disease, and caregivers are ignored. Even the caregivers forget about making time for themselves.
"Caregivers are at increased risk of disease because of the burden and difficulties associated with caregiving," Ercoli said. "A lot don't sleep or eat right. They neglect themselves, so they're at higher risk of depression and anxiety, coronary types of problems and are more prone to getting sick."
Alzheimer's is also a problem related to socio-economics, Ercoli said. "The disease is bad for everybody, rich or poor, but the amount of help they can get is affected by socio-economic status.
In 2011, the average cost for a non-medical health aide was $21 per hour or $168 for an 8-hour day. Adult day care centers averaged $70 a day, according to the Alzheimer's Association.
For a while, Lewis couldn't afford to get help and has since received a government grant that allows her to get 16 hours of respite help a month.
"That 16 hours is fantastic," Lewis said. "If I get away for an hour and just go to the grocery store, that's like five hours for me. I could just leave and not think about someone else. I could be me again."
Staff Writer Steve Scauzillo contributed to this report.
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