FROM THE EDITOR'S PEN /
President Caregiver/
Editorial List
In May, we hosted a CEO panel at the Fort
Lauderdale Fearless Caregiver conference. Truth be known, I
was crossing my fingers about how well such a panel would
work since it truly exemplified our concept of fearless
caregiving. But it went over better than I could have ever
imagined. As I related in a
previous column, the discussion was lively, open and
invigorating. CEO’s shared their personal stories as
caregivers shared their thoughts on the future of the
healthcare system. I bring this event to your attention so
many months later, because yesterday I had an insightful
conversation with one of the CEO’s on the panel, Mark
Pafford, who has dedicated his life’s work to supporting
caregivers of those living with Alzheimer’s disease. Mark is
the CEO of the
Alzheimer’s Association, Southeast Florida Chapter
and a leading community activist. What I found most
interesting is that he is now a candidate for the Palm Beach
County Commission
(as if he doesn’t do enough for the community). His candidacy is what I hope to see become a
trend with our healthcare leaders becoming policy makers.
With a variety of extremely important
elections coming up within the next few months, it is
important for us to be fully aware of where the candidates
stand on caregiving issues as well as other vitally
important issues. Do you know where your local, state and
federal office holders and seekers stand on issues such as
research funding, caregiver program funding and
reauthorizations, funding for respite care, Medicare and
Medicaid issues and/or consumer directed care? For so many
reasons, we caregivers can find ourselves feeling isolated
and powerless, a fact that we work daily to help change for
the better, but imagine how powerful 54 million voters can
be when we use our voting privileges wisely by asking the
right questions and voting accordingly.
Now, I wonder if I can establish
residency in West Palm Beach’s sixth district in time to
vote for Mark?
Vote early. Vote often. Vote Caregiving.
What
questions would you like to see candidates asked regarding
caregiving issues?
Gary Barg
Editor-in-Chief
gary@caregiver.com
