💛 AARP Caregivers Find Community and Support Online (AARP Article/Advocacy)

[Winter2025VA]

FROM THE ARTICLE.

AARP Making a Difference: Caregiver Finds Community in AARP Discussion Group.

Support and advice on our Caregiving Facebook group has been crucial for many.

By Deirdre van Dyk, AARP. Published December 15, 2025.

When Cheri Lynch’s father, who suffered from dementia, COPD, psoriasis and diabetes, could no longer take care of himself, Lynch and her two brothers agreed he should move into the Franklin, Massachusetts, home she shared with her husband of more than 30 years. Though her brothers lived nearby, most of the job of keeping her father safe and healthy fell to her. Lynch, 63, says after a few years of full-time caregiving, she was hanging by a thread. Five years ago, she would have said her father, Ralph Peavey, was her best friend. A U.S. Army veteran, he was cutting down large trees at age 79 and taking on the repair of any home appliance. But dementia had turned her father into an erratic and occasionally combative man who raised his fists at Lynch, refused to bathe and tried to get out of the car as she drove him to doctor’s appointments.

USE LINK BELOW TO READ THE ARTICLE.

https://www.aarp.org/advocacy/caregiver-support-group-facebook/ .