Overstretched ‘sandwich generation’ caregivers need more support

by Pamela Appea

This article was originally published at Prism.

Julie Ramos first realized her husband’s forgetfulness was far more serious than she had previously suspected the day he and their then 6-year-old daughter got lost in Mexico City while walking in a familiar location near their relatives’ home. Ramos, who is using a pseudonym, ended up having to call the police to find her husband and daughter. At the time, Ramos didn’t know as much about dementia and how it would impact her American military veteran husband, James, also using a pseudonym, who was in his early 70s at the time. But over the last six years of her husband’s life, Ramos, who was then in her 40s, became her husband’s full-time caregiver while also being a de facto single mother to their daughter.

“I had no help,” Ramos told Prism. “It was hard. I used to dress him and cut his nails. My husband was aggressive sometimes [as a result of dementia, but] I felt like [caring for him] was my responsibility. It was part of my commitment when I married him.”