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Abstract

ent Generation</a>.” The Silent Generation is made up of people born between the mid-1920s and the mid-1940s. Members of the Silent Generation are currently aged about 77 to 94, and in the United States, <a href="https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/2020/census-briefs/c2020br-07.pdf">there are roughly 20–21 million of them</a>.My mother is firmly ensconced in her 80s, a member of the Silent Generation. She is currently suffering from what is termed “moderate” dementia. Her situation is complicated by the fact that she has macular degeneration, which is making her blind (and which a lot of other old people will also suffer from), but even moderate dementia is no picnic. She doesn’t really know where she is most days. She has bowel incontinence. She can’t remember what time of day it is, and she needs help with pretty much all of her activities in daily life. She lives in a Memory Care facility and she is dependent on care home staff to give her all her medications.Severe dementia means that you can’t feed yourself, you might be nonverbal, you might also become immobile, and eventually, you will have trouble swallowing.These different stages of dementia, like mild moderate, and severe? Each stage can last for years.Scary? You know it. Nothing about dementia that I have witnessed or read about looks like any kind of fun whatsoever.But that does not excuse all of us from our responsibilities to learn something about it before it comes for us and our loved ones.Taking care of people with moderate and severe dementia is very, very labor intensive. It is also emotionally exhausting. One of the hallmarks of dementia is that its sufferers still feel very strong emotions and moods, but they lose their abilities to be rational and to perform independent reasoning. Through absolutely no fault of their own, people with dementia often present as very, very old toddlers: They tend to be very emotional and sensitive, and they are VERY good at intuitively picking up on the moods of their caregivers, families, and friends as well.It took me a long, long time to learn that I could no longer reason with my mother. My mother, who previously had been the most frighteningly practical person I had ever known, simply lost the ability to even recognize that she is blind and doesn’t know where she is and will never be capable of making her own food or taking her own pills again. It doesn’t matter how many times you lovingly say, “But, Mom, we can’t take care of you in your house anymore.” She simply does not understand or remember that my siblings and

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I were ever helping take care of her (which we did, for several years). What’s more, she thinks you’re insulting her and she gets very, very angry.It is beyond frustrating. And it makes caregivers angry too. And then, what does the person with dementia pick up on, because they are still very perceptive to feelings? They pick up on caregiver anger, and they mirror it right back to their caregivers.Even if you have never seen a dementia nursing or Memory Care facility, you can somewhat picture it as a group of toddlers (or: adults who struggle with impulse control, if you prefer that vocabulary) who are full-grown adults (and many of whom still retain amazing strength and flexibility), who all need help going to the bathroom, eating, and cleaning themselves, as well as being constantly entertained or kept from annoying one another. And the minute the person caring for all these adults who cannot reason gets a little frustrated? They all pick up on it and start to react angrily.It’s a big, big job.And, here’s the scary part: It’s a job that fewer and fewer people want to do.<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/27/us/nursing-homes-staff-shortages/index.html#:~:text=A%20June%202021%20survey%20from%20the%20American%20Health,staff%20during%20the%20pandemic%20due%20to%20workers%20quitting.">A June 2021 survey</a> found that a whopping 94% of nursing homes had a “shortage of staff members in their last month.” I could find you multiple studies that say that, but I won’t, because I’ll also share with you that the average salary for certified nursing assistants (CNAs, who comprise the majority of care home staff) is <a href="https://www.registerednursing.org/certified-nursing-assistant/salary/">right around $30,000 a year</a>.My mother lives in one of the nicest and most expensive Memory Care facilities we could find. They are constantly short-staffed. Constantly.So: We’ve discussed the differences in the generations, and how the majority of the cohort that are in nursing and skilled care facilities right now tend to be in the Silent Generation, aged 77 to 94. We learned there are around 20 million such people in the U.S.We also learned that there is ALREADY a massive shortage of care workers for this population.Now. Are you ready for the kicker? To talk about the next generation who will need nursing and Memory Care facilities? The Baby Boomers, currently aged 58 to 76?There are <a href="https://www.prb.org/resources/just-how-many-baby-boomers-are-there/">more than 76 million</a> of them.</article></body>

Are We Ready for the Coming Dementia Bomb?

No, no we are not. Not remotely ready.

Dementia is one of those conditions that you think will never happen to you or to someone you love.

Which is silly, really. Studies have found that “approximately two out of three Americans experience some level of cognitive impairment at an average age of approximately 70 years.” If you have grandparents, parents, older relatives, and friends…the chances are good that at some point in your life, you will know somebody who suffers from some form of dementia or Alzheimer’s Disease.

The chances are also good that YOU will suffer from cognitive decline, dementia, or Alzheimer’s Disease.

And please believe me when I say that, collectively, in the United States, we haven’t seen anything like the amounts of dementia and cognitive disability that we’re about to see.

Let’s talk about generations.

Most talk about generations features fun tropes about whether Gen-X is invisible, how pretty much everyone dislikes Baby Boomers, what Millennials have all ruined, and, wait, I know there are more generations, but honestly, I usually don’t have any idea what anyone in Generation Z is doing so I don’t know what their tropes are. They all like TikTok, I guess?

What is not typically discussed is that Baby Boomers are in no way the oldest people we know and that many of the things that happen to generations as they age are unpleasant and only going to become more so.

So let’s go back a step and talk about the generation above the Baby Boomers that nobody ever talks about, appropriately named the “Silent Generation.” The Silent Generation is made up of people born between the mid-1920s and the mid-1940s. Members of the Silent Generation are currently aged about 77 to 94, and in the United States, there are roughly 20–21 million of them.

My mother is firmly ensconced in her 80s, a member of the Silent Generation. She is currently suffering from what is termed “moderate” dementia. Her situation is complicated by the fact that she has macular degeneration, which is making her blind (and which a lot of other old people will also suffer from), but even moderate dementia is no picnic. She doesn’t really know where she is most days. She has bowel incontinence. She can’t remember what time of day it is, and she needs help with pretty much all of her activities in daily life. She lives in a Memory Care facility and she is dependent on care home staff to give her all her medications.

Severe dementia means that you can’t feed yourself, you might be nonverbal, you might also become immobile, and eventually, you will have trouble swallowing.

These different stages of dementia, like mild moderate, and severe? Each stage can last for years.

Scary? You know it. Nothing about dementia that I have witnessed or read about looks like any kind of fun whatsoever.

But that does not excuse all of us from our responsibilities to learn something about it before it comes for us and our loved ones.

Taking care of people with moderate and severe dementia is very, very labor intensive. It is also emotionally exhausting. One of the hallmarks of dementia is that its sufferers still feel very strong emotions and moods, but they lose their abilities to be rational and to perform independent reasoning. Through absolutely no fault of their own, people with dementia often present as very, very old toddlers: They tend to be very emotional and sensitive, and they are VERY good at intuitively picking up on the moods of their caregivers, families, and friends as well.

It took me a long, long time to learn that I could no longer reason with my mother. My mother, who previously had been the most frighteningly practical person I had ever known, simply lost the ability to even recognize that she is blind and doesn’t know where she is and will never be capable of making her own food or taking her own pills again. It doesn’t matter how many times you lovingly say, “But, Mom, we can’t take care of you in your house anymore.” She simply does not understand or remember that my siblings and I were ever helping take care of her (which we did, for several years). What’s more, she thinks you’re insulting her and she gets very, very angry.

It is beyond frustrating. And it makes caregivers angry too. And then, what does the person with dementia pick up on, because they are still very perceptive to feelings? They pick up on caregiver anger, and they mirror it right back to their caregivers.

Even if you have never seen a dementia nursing or Memory Care facility, you can somewhat picture it as a group of toddlers (or: adults who struggle with impulse control, if you prefer that vocabulary) who are full-grown adults (and many of whom still retain amazing strength and flexibility), who all need help going to the bathroom, eating, and cleaning themselves, as well as being constantly entertained or kept from annoying one another. And the minute the person caring for all these adults who cannot reason gets a little frustrated? They all pick up on it and start to react angrily.

It’s a big, big job.

And, here’s the scary part: It’s a job that fewer and fewer people want to do.

A June 2021 survey found that a whopping 94% of nursing homes had a “shortage of staff members in their last month.” I could find you multiple studies that say that, but I won’t, because I’ll also share with you that the average salary for certified nursing assistants (CNAs, who comprise the majority of care home staff) is right around $30,000 a year.

My mother lives in one of the nicest and most expensive Memory Care facilities we could find. They are constantly short-staffed. Constantly.

So: We’ve discussed the differences in the generations, and how the majority of the cohort that are in nursing and skilled care facilities right now tend to be in the Silent Generation, aged 77 to 94. We learned there are around 20 million such people in the U.S.

We also learned that there is ALREADY a massive shortage of care workers for this population.

Now. Are you ready for the kicker? To talk about the next generation who will need nursing and Memory Care facilities? The Baby Boomers, currently aged 58 to 76?

There are more than 76 million of them.