Dementia was somber topic at Rotary public luncheon

To put it mildly, the speaker at the Rotary Club of Front Royal’s open to the public luncheon of September 29, was a bit of a downer for an audience more than half of which qualified for AARP membership or Medicare. She also gave some somber but sound advice to the younger people there.

Bobbi Carducci is delivering a sobering and important message – Courtesy Photo

Bobbi Carducci, of Round Hill, Va., it turned out, is a fairly prolific writer of a variety of books, but she wasn’t overtly publicizing her profession or her authorship.  She was issuing a warning about what may well overtake about one-third of those in the room – dementia, and, more specifically, the possible onset of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Particularly, she talked of caregivers and those who will become caregivers and how important it is to prepare for dementia in one’s aging parents, spouses and other loved ones. To coin a phrase, it was a wake up call to her listeners, several of whom – including me, at 84 possibly the oldest in the room – to “educate yourself, prepare now” for Alzheimer’s to strike you and your families. For starters, you can ask your family doctor.

Faces reflected alarm when Carducci recited statistical data. Example: One in nine people in America aged 65 and older has Alzheimer’s.

The numbers will escalate rapidly in coming years, she warned, as the baby boom generation reaches age 65 and beyond, the age range at which most are susceptible. Quoting U.S. Bureau of the Census data, she forecast the incidence of those with Alzheimer’s will triple, from 5.2 million today to 13.8 million in 2050. In 2015, 15 million caregivers provided 18 billion hours of unpaid care. Alzheimer’s kills more people than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined.

All of these statistics are based, not only on an in-depth study of the problem confronting a substantial number of individuals and families, but on Carducci’s personal experience – the caring she provided her father-in-law over a seven-year period to the day he died. Her experience was never easy, she said, even for a person like her trained to assist “members of her community in the case of catastrophic medical emergencies” who is also a member of the Loudon County Medical Reserve Corps.

And here, rather than go into the daily traumas faced by the caregiver in dementia cases, I will reference readers to the book she recently published, “Confessions of the Imperfect Caregiver”, as a must read for many of us based on Chapter One of the manuscript I read online.

Bobbi Carducci is actively seeking public platforms such as service clubs and other civic organizations in Northern Virginia and the Valley from which to spread her message of preparation for such trying times as await many of us, from one angle or another.

Contacts: website www.bobbicarducci.com also www.theimperfectcaregiver.com email bcarducci@comcast.net