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Solutions to lack of adequate homecare and respite care
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Posted on Oct 26 2016
November is a month of holidays: Citizenship Day, Veterans Day, and Thanksgiving, and is National Novel Writing Month. November has also been declared National Family Caregivers Month, National Diabetes Awareness Month, Epilepsy Awareness Month, Lung Cancer Awareness Month, and Pancreatic Awareness Month.
And, significantly this year, it is a time for making decisions on Election Day.
Awareness of a problem is not enough. We need action. Creating a program or an office without funding to provide services is insufficient. And, when the Legislature is unwilling or unable to provide adequate funding, then it is time for our community—family, friends, neighbors, businesses—to step up and help out.
Taking care of our elderly has in the past been an important, if not the most important, cultural value on these islands. Saving one’s language to preserve a culture is one thing, but saving the basic cultural way of life in caring for our elderly, our people with disabilities and illness, and our homeless must be preserved.
On Saturday, Oct. 29, 2016, at 10am, we will hold a second meeting to consider alternatives and solutions to the lack of adequate home care and respite care, particularly for our elderly. If you or a loved one are in need of such services or assistive technology, or if you have ideas on how to assist, please join us at the office of Northern Marianas Protection & Advocacy Systems, Inc. We would welcome your ideas and input.
Also, you are invited to witness the signing of the proclamation for National Family Caregivers Month and National Diabetes Awareness Month to be held on Oct. 31, at 9am at the Governor’s Office.
Meanwhile, I am sure that many of you know of a person who is no longer able to walk, who needs help in getting from bed to a wheelchair, who needs a caregiver to provide daily home care, who is no longer able to get out of the house. Reach out, call and visit that person. Support the caregiver by offering them a few hours of respite time. (Jeanne Rayphand/Special to the Saipan Tribune)
Jeanne Rayphand is legal counsel of the Northern Marianas Protection & Advocacy Systems, Inc., NMPASI.
