Bolinsky Recognized by AARP

HARTFORD – Rep. Mitch Bolinsky (R-Newtown) was honored by AARP with two awards for his work on legislation to help family caregivers last session.

The first award was an AARP Legislative Achievement Award, a state award, and the second was a national distinction as a “Capitol Caregiver.” Both awards were given in specific recognition of Rep. Bolinsky’s work on the CARE Act, legislation aimed at supporting family caregivers and promoting aging in place.

“I am honored to receive these two awards from AARP,” Rep. Bolinsky said. “I take my role as Ranking Member on the Aging Committee very personally and am proud of the work that the committee did last session on the CARE Act and other important legislation to make life better for both our senior citizens and their dedicated caregivers. In my family, we live many of these issues every day as primary caregivers to my wife Luisa’s father and, on my side, I thank God every day for the care my mother provides my father, who has Alzheimer’s. We know that ‘aging-in-place’ – being cared for in one’s own home or in a family member’s home – provides a more dignified and loving environment for our elders. But often, unless you live it, the enormous emotional and physical toll on the caregiving family or individual can go unnoticed by other family members, friends and neighbors”

Rep. Bolinsky serves as the Ranking Member of the legislature’s Aging Committee and last year cosponsored and advocated on behalf of the CARE Act in his position as the highest ranking House Republican member of the committee.

“Approximately 459,000 family members in our state care for an aging parent or loved one, helping them to live independently in their own homes,” said Nora Duncan, AARP Connecticut’s State Director. “These family caregivers have a huge responsibility, and Rep. Bolinsky’s leadership on the CARE Act has made a tremendous difference. Today, family caregivers in Connecticut are better off because they will be recognized in a hospital, know when their loved one will be discharged, and can better understand the medical tasks expected of them when their loved one returns home.”

“We cannot change our current demographic shift, as Connecticut and America mature and we have not yet found cures or reliable prevention strategies to head-off Alzheimer’s and other Dementias, so we must keep fighting to find or create ways to not just care for victims but also provide some relief for caregivers needing respite to recharge their own batteries before they too become ill,” Rep. Bolinsky added. “I’d like to urge everyone to spread a message of hope and help in their own worlds too. In addition to the emotional and physical challenges of caregiving in the home setting, it can often very isolating and lonely. Please, reach out to a neighbor, a friend, a family member. Let them know you care. Consider how much a short conversation or visit might mean to them. And, if you’re an angel, think how much they might like to spend an hour shopping, at the library, or napping if you can be so kind as to sit with their loved one for a short time.”