Five Benefits from Implementing Business Process Management

Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter Has Dementia, The Carter Center Says

ATLANTA (AP) — Former first lady Rosalynn Carter has dementia, her family announced Tuesday.

Carter, now 95, remains at home with former President Jimmy Carter, 98, who has been at home receiving hospice care since early this year.

"She continues to live happily at home with her husband, enjoying spring in Plains and visits with loved ones," the family said via The Carter Center, the global humanitarian organization the couple founded in 1982, less than two years after Jimmy Carter's landslide defeat.

Married nearly 77 years, the Carters are the longest-married first couple in U.S. History.

The family noted in its statement that Rosalynn Carter has spent her long public life advocating for individuals and families affected by mental illness and for those in caregiving relationships with loved ones.

"Mrs. Carter often noted that there are only four kinds of people in this world: those who have been caregivers; those who are currently caregivers, those who will be caregivers, and those who will need caregivers," the family statement reads. "We are experiencing the joy and the challenges of this journey."

The Carters have been visiting only with family and close friends since the former president's announcement in February that he would forgo further medical intervention after a series of short hospital stays.

The family has not disclosed any specific diagnosis for either the former president or the former first lady. The statement Tuesday said the Carter family would have no further comment.

The Carters often described themselves as "full partners" throughout his political career and their long public life that followed. Rosalynn Carter campaigned vigorously for her husband in his bids for Georgia governor and the presidency. She used her platform to prioritize mental health awareness, working to address the stigma attached to the condition.

After their White House years, Rosalynn Carter continued her mental health advocacy at The Carter Center, and she traveled extensively with her husband as part of their work promoting democracy globally and fighting disease in the developing world.

One in 10 older Americans have dementia, the family's statement said. "We recognize, as she did more than half a century ago, that stigma is often a barrier that keeps individuals and their families from seeking and getting much-needed support. We hope sharing our family's news will increase important conversations at kitchen tables and in doctor's offices around the country."

Eleanor Rosalynn Smith was born in Plains on Aug. 18, 1927. Jimmy Carter's mother, a nurse, delivered her in the Smith family home. Lillian Carter brought her young son back a few days later to visit, allowing the future president and first lady to meet as preschooler and newborn.

They were married on July 7, 1946.

Jimmy Carter enjoyed telling everyone that his wife was "more political" than he was, a point she did not protest.

"I would be out there campaigning right now if Jimmy would run again," she wrote just a few years after his defeat. "I miss the world of politics."

Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter Diagnosed With Dementia, Carter Center Announces

Former first lady Rosalynn Carter has been diagnosed with dementia, The Carter Center announced on Tuesday.

"She continues to live happily at home with her husband, enjoying spring in Plains and visits with loved ones," The Carter Center said in a statement.

The Carter Center pointed to the first lady's advocacy for mental health and said it was making the announcement to decrease stigma.

MORE: Biden lets it slip that Jimmy Carter wants him to deliver Carter's eulogy

"We recognize, as she did more than half a century ago, that stigma is often a barrier that keeps individuals and their families from seeking and getting much-needed support," the statement continued. "We hope sharing our family's news will increase important conversations at kitchen tables and in doctor's offices around the country."

Carter's husband, former President Jimmy Carter, has been receiving hospice care since February following a series of hospitalizations.

PHOTO: FILE - Former president Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn prior to a game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Sept. 30, 2018 in Atlanta. (Scott Cunningham/Getty Images, FILE)

The Carters are the longest-ever married presidential couple, having wed in 1946. At 98, Jimmy Carter is the oldest living former president and the longest-lived former president in U.S. History.

He and Rosalynn Carter, 95, founded The Carter Center in Georgia in 1982, shortly after Jimmy Carter lost reelection to Ronald Reagan.

In the decades since, The Carter Center has become a noted international humanitarian force, focused on public health and human rights, among other efforts. The Carters have also become well-known for their long association building houses with Habitat for Humanity.

Former first lady Rosalynn Carter diagnosed with dementia, Carter Center announces originally appeared on abcnews.Go.Com

At Promise Center In Allentown, Community's Health Needs Met With More Than Food

© Amy Shortell/The Morning Call/TNS Hasshan Batts, director of Promise Neighborhoods, speaks Thursday, Feb. 2, 2023, about the Promise Food & Wellness Center at Hays Elementary in Allentown. The facility is a collaboration between Promise Neighborhoods, Allentown School District and other community partners.

On 13th Street in Allentown, in the basement of Hays Elementary School, is a space where struggling families can get food to fill their pantries, connect with services and find temporary refuge in times of crisis.

Promise Food and Wellness Center is a collaboration of Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley, Allentown School District, United Way, Second Harvest Food Bank and Community Action Lehigh Valley. The goal is to improve the health and overall well-being of people in the community by providing food and access to resources.

Hasshan Batts, director of Promise Neighborhoods, said the idea for the center came through engagement with the community and the school district.

"They were building the elementary school, so we went out to talk to the community about what are some of the needs, what do you want within a new school building?" Batts said. "And they said we want early childhood education, we want health care, we want adult learning and we want food."

The center is open Wednesday, Thursday and Friday as well as two Saturdays a month. Everyone who staffs the center speaks English and Spanish.

It doesn't operate like some more conventional food pantries. Families can use an app to order what they want ahead of time; the center also accepts walk-ins.

The food pantry's stocks come from Second Harvest Food Bank and it keeps lots of staples such as juices, cereals, coffee, canned foods, frozen meat, frozen vegetables and eggs. But it also stocks things far less common at most food pantries, such as halal meats, which if offers thanks to a partnership with the Bucks County-based Zubaida Foundation.

"We had a family that came in with their kids and you know, the mom, the kids were like, 'Oh my god, we're getting all this food,'" Tara Castro, center coordinator and certified community health worker, said. "They were surprised but that touched me."

The center also keeps some nonfood stocks such as pet care items and household goods. It has given out free COVID-19 test kits and naloxone, the opioid overdose reversal drug. At the moment the center even has copies of the Quran, which were donated by a local mosque.

The center has been open for just over one year. When The Morning Call visited the center in February, a volunteer said on average they serve 90 to 120 families per week.

Though most of the physical space is dedicated to the food pantry, diet is only one aspect of health the center aims to serve. It also assists in filling other needs, primarily through referrals for things such as mental health services, housing and primary care physicians.

"The first question when you come in the door is, 'Are you safe?' People oftentimes sign up for food but the idea is to really get them access to things that are the social determinants of health," Batts said.

Castro has office space in the back to work with people who are in crisis or in need of connection with services through programs such as Lehigh County Children & Youth or the Hispanic American Organization.

"I know some people, because of pride, they might not want to ask and that's why we have to ask them, 'What else can we help you with?' Because I think it's a big thing just coming for food that pride might take over them," Castro said.

Though Castro and other staff at the center can help families with needs they see or are told about at the center, the center's staff isn't just waiting for people to come to them — they have a mental health outreach team that canvasses the neighborhoods nearby.

"They have a survey that says, 'How are you?' and 'How are you really?' and then they engage in real relationships with people," Batts said. "They want to know if you're wrestling with depression, they want to know if you are suicidal."

Batts said members of the mental health outreach team can also walk people with untreated mental health needs to the Hispanic American Organization for psychiatric evaluation, thanks to a partnership with the organization and Lehigh County.

And if people in the community have other needs, such as food, outreach team members can direct them to the food and wellness center.

Making these community connections can have broad reaching positive consequences. In February, they were able to help a man who was in the middle of a mental health crisis and in immediate need of resources and assistance.

A member of the outreach team, Afua Yafemi Conyers, brought the man and his children to the center before because they needed food. Because of this, the man trusted Conyers so much that she was the first person he called when his struggles began.

Conyers brought the man back to the food and wellness center so he could be somewhere safe. While he was there Khushboo Jain, a former staff member at the center, said she spent a good chunk of an afternoon talking with him.

"He helped restock our shelves but also helped families and he was like 'I'll come here more because I feel safe. My children are safe,'" Jain said.

Morning Call reporter Leif Greiss can be reached at 610-679-4028 or lgreiss@mcall.Com.

©2023 The Morning Call. Visit mcall.Com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

---