Grand Rapids Herald: CONGRESSMAN SHOWS SUPPORT FOR OLDER MINNESOTANS, CAREGIVING FAMILIES
AARP thanks U.S. Representative Rick Nolan for his leadership in Congress to help older Minnesotans live independently at home and in the community, and for supporting the family caregivers who so often help older parents, spouses and other loved ones achieve this goal.
This month, Rep. Nolan cosponsored the bipartisan Recognize, Assist, Include, Support and Engage (RAISE) Family Caregivers Act in the U.S. House. This legislation, already passed unanimously by the U.S. Senate, would create a national strategy to recognize and support family caregivers.
In Minnesota, 585,000 daughters, sons, husbands, wives and others take on huge responsibilities to help their loved ones with bathing and dressing, meals, finances, transportation, medication management and more. Many also juggle full- or part-time jobs and some are still raising their families. Without a doubt, family caregiving can be emotionally, physically and financially challenging. With some commonsense legislative steps – like the RAISE Act – we can make their big responsibilities a little bit easier.
Rep. Nolan also was a leader earlier this year in working to reauthorize the Older Americans Act (OAA), originally enacted into law in 1965. Since that time, millions of at-risk older Americans have benefited from services the OAA helps fund, such as Meals-on-Wheels, preventative health and transportation services, elder abuse prevention – and assistance for family caregivers.
At AARP, we believe supporting older Minnesotans and caregiving families is a top priority. We thank Rep. Nolan for his leadership to help Minnesotans live independently, at home and in the community for as long as possible.
Will Phillips
Director, AARP Minnesota