(upbeat music) - Hi everyone.

Steve Adubato here.

We kick off the program with a very, very important conversation with Ken Zaents, who's President and Chief Executive Officer of Alzheimer's, New Jersey.

The website will be up right away.

Ken, good to see you.

- You too.

Thanks for having me on.

- You got it.

Ken, as we put the website up and also the hotline will be coming up after that, describe the organization and who you're primarily out there to help.

- Sure.

So we are a New Jersey incorporated local community-based organization, and we provide primarily services, programs and services for families that are impacted by Alzheimer's disease in the state of New Jersey.

We're not affiliated with a national organization, so our board and our staff are totally committed 100% to serving the needs of New Jersey families that are impacted by, as you already said, what it is a pretty charitable disease.

- So help us understand something.

My dad dealt with dementia for a long time past, a little over three years ago.

Dementia, is the umbrella term Alzheimer's and dementia.

Do I have it the wrong way?

- So the umbrella term is dementia.

So if you have Alzheimer's disease, you have a form of dementia.

So Alzheimer's disease is dementia, but it's a specific type of dementia.

And then there are many others.

There's vascular dementia, there's frontal temporal dementia, just to name a couple.

So the umbrella is dementia.

- And my sisters and I and others who connected to our family watched my mom who watches One on One every night, hey mom.

And she was my dad's primary caregiver.

And the impact on her was, and I imagine still is, extraordinary.

Talk about the caregivers of those who are dealing with Alzheimer's - And Steve, that's primarily where we concentrate on our work through support groups education.

We have a respite care and wellness program that teaches caregivers about the importance of getting time off for themselves.

It's an extremely stressful job, and caregivers oftentimes take it all on themselves, not necessarily with any help.

So one of the things that we try to impress on caregivers is there is help available.

It's such a challenge.

There are so many changes that the two people in a relationship are experiencing.

So caregivers need support.

And the hard part too is that so much of the expense of caregiving is born by caregivers because we do not have a system that, an insurance system that pays for the long-term care needs of families who are doing all this care primarily in their home.

- Why don't we?

- Well there's Medicare, but Medicare was never designed to be a system for a long-term illness.

Medicare will pay for, if someone has dementia and because of that, they're confused and they fall and they break their hip.

Well, Medicare will pay for the broken hip, but Medicare was not designed as a system to pay for the services that that family may have needed to prevent that fall like a home health aide or sending someone to adult day services.

Those, I guess you would call them, quality of life services that can make life so much easier for caregivers.

You're on your own.

It's private pay.

- And Medicare's never responded to that need.

It's always so interesting.

Someone says it wasn't created for that.

But so many things change and so many of us who are evolving and pivoting, you think, well, why wouldn't the federal government do that?

I don't want to get into a big policy discussion with you, but there's never been a pivot, there's never been an adaptation, there's never been a revision to deal with long-term care, correct?

- Correct.

- Okay.

- Do this for us.

While the hotline is up, right now, the website is up, someone calls the hotline, who's on the other end, Ken, and what specific help are they getting?

Then I wanna talk about the scholarships that you have for caregivers, please.

- Sure.

So if someone calls us, they will get one of our trained staff members who know the disease, who know the community resources.

They'll get someone that's compassionate, they'll get someone that cares, and most of all, they'll get someone that listens.

And in those helpline calls, depending on the nature of the call, we talk about community resources.

Sometimes we just talk, because that's what the caregiver needs.

And we try to probe, because a lot of times the caregiver will call for a specific question and by the end of the call, and it could be 15 minutes, it could be an hour, it depends on the need, that caregiver will come away with answers to questions that they didn't even know they had.

So that's really what we try to do when someone calls our helpline, - What are the scholarships for caregivers?

What does that mean?

- So as part of our respite care and wellness program, we wanna educate caregivers about the importance of getting time off for themselves.

And through an application process and through the generosity of our donors, we have money that's available annually so that caregivers can get up to a thousand dollars in a "scholarship" so that they can access a licensed respite care services in the community.

So it may be having some money to pay for adult day, it may be having some money to bring a home healthcare aid into the home.

It's really meant to be a starter.

It's meant to be, the scholarship is meant to be part of the education process to get caregivers to try these services without having to worry about spending their own money, at least not at first.

- And as we wrap up, I just wanna put some things in perspective.

16.6% of the New Jersey population over 65, age is not the only determining factor, but as a primary risk factor for cognitive decline.

According to the Alzheimer's Association, one of nine, one in nine people over 65 years of age are affected by Alzheimer's.

Wow.

Hey Ken- - It's a huge issue for our state, Steve, and that's kind of why we've concentrated our services right here in New Jersey.

- Yeah.

Hey Ken, I wanna thank you and your colleagues for the work you do every day as a not-for-profit organization making a difference for a lot of folks who often feel very isolated as caregivers.

Thank you, Ken.

- Thank you, Steve.

Thanks for helping us spread the word.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Celebrating 30 years in public broadcasting.

Funding has been provided by The Russell Berrie Foundation.

New Jersey’s Clean Energy program.

The North Ward Center.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

The Turrell Fund, a foundation serving children.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Delta Dental of New Jersey.

PSEG Foundation.

And by Seton Hall University.

Promotional support provided by Northjersey.com and Local IQ.

And by Meadowlands Chamber.

(light music) - The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, in partnership with utility companies throughout the state, can help you save money and create a more comfortable home through Comfort Partners, a free program that helps income-eligible customers reduce their utility bills through cost-effective measures that save energy, including lighting, hot water heaters, large appliances, heating and cooling improvements, insulation, and much more.

Learn more at NJCleanEnergy.com/CP.