Written by Samantha Harrison, founder of Momentum Family Strategies
Every week in Kentucky, I meet parents in their late seventies and eighties who are still caring for their adult children with disabilities. Many of those adult children are in their fifties.
Their bodies are failing. Lifting is unsafe. Bathing is dangerous. Transfers put everyone at risk. Yet they keep going, not because they can, but because they believe there is no other choice.
That belief is quietly harming families across our state. I hear the same things again and again:
“I was told the waiting list is 20 years, so I never applied.”
“Someone said my child cannot get help until I am gone.”
“I am 82 years old and do not know how much longer I can do this.”
Here is what aging caregivers deserve to know: you do not have to wait until you die for your child to receive help.
Kentucky has multiple support programs with different eligibility rules and timelines. Some families wait years. Others qualify sooner than expected. But if you never apply, nothing changes.
When a caregiver becomes ill or hospitalized, adult siblings are suddenly pulled into a system they do not understand. Families scramble in crisis, often spending thousands on emergency care while trying to navigate services they were never taught about.
This is not a failure of families. It is a failure of information. Aging parents should not suffer in isolation, and siblings should not be blindsided when care can no longer be managed.
The question is whether we will make sure families know help exists before it is too late.
Samantha Harrison, Founder, Momentum Family Strategies