💛 5 Tips to Prepare for Caregiving for a Sibling (AARP Article)

[Winter2025VA]

FROM THE ARTICLE.

Caregiving for Siblings: 5 Key Ways to Prepare.

How to get ready when it's your turn to care for siblings with a chronic illness or disability.

By Paul Wynn, AARP. Published September 05, 2025.

Becoming a sibling caregiver can happen suddenly or gradually, often as parents involve siblings more in care and decision-making for adult siblings with disabilities or chronic conditions.

It happened overnight for Nora Handler and her older sister, Margaret Fox-Hawthorne. Their three unmarried adult brothers were living at home in northeast Illinois when their mother, Mary Lu, died suddenly from an aneurysm in 1998. The oldest brother, Marty, now 72, has autism, and after many years the two younger brothers, Michael and Patrick, were eventually diagnosed with FG syndrome type 1, a rare genetic disorder characterized by intellectual disability and poor muscle tone.

USE LINK BELOW TO READ THE ARTICLE.

https://www.aarp.org/caregiving/basics/sibling-caregivers/

[GailL1]

Neither this AARP article nor the embedded link on ABLE ACCOUNTS mentioned that this type of account can only be opened up for a disabled adults who had onset of their disability before age 26.  This age is changing in 2026 to age 46 - but the disability has to be of an early onset type.

SSA.gov - ABLE Accounts: What You Should Know Aug 22, 2023 

from the link ~

As of 2023, the ABLE Act limits eligibility to people with disabilities who had an onset of disability before they turned 26. As of 2026, however, the ABLE Age Adjustment Act will increase the age of ABLE eligibility to “before the age of 46”. If you meet the eligibility criteria, you may then choose the state in which you plan to open your account.

Plans for this type of disabled people (early onset) definitely need to be made in advance.  I cannot believe that some families just don’t talk about things like this - or actually any sort of necessary planning.