We ALL need to contact our local, state, and federal representatives regularly and tell them that we NEED help to care for our loved ones at home. An article in the Washington Post recently stated that people who care for their loved ones at home instead of placing them in a nursing home save the government 350 billion dollars in 2006. I am sure that if there were more financial breaks given to caregivers, even more people would care for their relatives at home and that would save the government even more money over the long run.
Some states do this. Parts of the country have another program called the PACE program that helps with adult daycare or inhome care. There is no reason that this is not available to every single person who cares for a relative at home. We have got to contact our legislators regularly about this issue. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. We need to be squeaky wheels.
This is a link to get contact information for your legislators.
http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml