Ask for the Training

CNN marked the first day of National Family Caregivers Month with a story about what families are never taught. That is a good start. When a major outlet covers caregiving, more families learn that the help they needed existed all along. Alice Thomas cared for her father alone as his dementia and mobility declined. Nobody showed her how to bathe him safely or lift him after a fall, so one night at 3 a.m. she called 911 because he was on the floor and she could not get him up.

The help exists. Medicare added a training benefit for family caregivers in 2024, and some states run programs that teach families to give medication, tend wounds and move a person safely. AARP research says about 40 percent of caregivers do high-intensity care, from medical equipment to injections, but only about 1 in 5 receives any training. In the benefit's first year and a half, Medicare paid claims that reached about 9,600 people. The problem is not the training. Many providers did not know the billing codes, and the benefit sometimes has to be started by a clinician.

Minnesota shows what it looks like when it works. Certified caregiver consultants at 42 agencies serve about 17,300 caregivers a year, free to families, and they stay for months or years. A consultant and her team taught Ron Patrick, in his 80s, how to lift his wife Vangie safely and get her to the bathroom at night. Even there, most families find the program by searching or by word of mouth.

So ask. At the next appointment, ask the doctor whether Medicare caregiver training fits your loved one's condition, and call your Area Agency on Aging about what your state offers. The gap is not only American. The World Health Organization expects 2.1 billion people aged 60 and older by 2050, and every country will need families who were shown how. A San Francisco program director told CNN what families say when they finally find her. "I wish I knew about you sooner."

Nobody should learn the lift on the night of the fall.