Rosalynn Carter Mental Health: Former First Lady Has Dementia, What It Is?

Rosalynn carter mental health

Rosalynn carter mental health is not good. Former first lady Rosalynn Carter has dementia, her family announced on Tuesday. 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.

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

Ms. Carter, now 95, remains at home with former President Jimmy Carter, 98, who has been at home receiving hospice care since early this year. Then married nearly 77 years.

Rosalynn carter mental health

The Carters are the longest-married first couple in U.S. history. They were married July 7, 1946.

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.

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.”

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

“Since 1971, Rosalynn had been a champion of mental health issues, and her leadership in this cause continues even now.” President Carter wrote in “White House Diary,” an annotated account of his time in the White House published in 2010.

Carter continued, “She mounted a worldwide crusade to reduce the stigma associated with mental illness and helped persuade the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control to include mental health on their agendas.”

 

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What Is Dementia ?

Dementia is the loss of cognitive functioning ,thinking, remembering, and reasoning. Such an extent that it interferes with a person’s daily life and activities. Also some people with dementia cannot control their emotions, and their personalities may change.

dementia

 

Dementia ranges in severity from the mildest stage. When it is just beginning to affect a person’s functioning, to the most severe stage. When the person must depend completely on others for basic activities of daily living, such as feeding oneself.

Dementia affects millions of people and is more common as people grow older (about one-third of all people age 85 or older may have some form of dementia). But it is not a normal part of aging. Many people live into their 90s and beyond without any signs of dementia.

 

Note: This report has been updated with some additional background information.

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