Rosalynn Carter, former First Lady of the United States and wife of former President Jimmy Carter, suffers from dementia, the Carter Center announced on Tuesday (30).
“The Carter family informs you that former First Lady Rosalynn Carter has dementia. She continues to live happily at home with her husband, enjoying springtime in the Plains. [na Geórgia] and visits from loved ones,” the statement continued. Additional details about the 95-year-old former first lady were not immediately provided and the center itself said it would not comment further.
The Carter Center said that by sharing news about Rosalynn Carter’s diagnosis, it helps “increase important conversations within homes and in physicians’ offices across the country.” As first lady, Carter made mental health advocacy her platform and formed a presidential commission on the issue, a legacy that continues today.
President Carter, 98, began receiving palliative care at home in February after a series of short stays.
The Biden couple “is in contact” with the former president’s team to “ensure that his family knows that they are certainly in the thoughts of the president and the first lady,” according to White House press secretary Karine Jean- Pierre, at a press conference on Tuesday.
At an event in Norcross, Ga., last week honoring the former president, President Carter’s former UN ambassador Andrew Young said he visited Carter last month and that he was doing very well. The former ambassador spoke to WSB-TV.
“They are near the end,” the Carters’ grandson, Jason Carter, said at the event. “He will be 99 in October and this is the perfect time to spend the last few days together at home in the Plains. They are together now, and have been for over 70 years.”
Rosalynn Carter has traveled the country and the world as First Lady in support of breaking down mental health stigmas.
“Since 1971, Rosalynn had been a strong advocate for mental health issues, and her leadership in this cause continues today,” wrote President Carter in the “White House Diary,” a special edition of the writings of his years 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 the Centers for Disease Control to include mental health on their agendas.”
Dementia is a broad term to describe an impaired ability to remember, think and make decisions, according to the CDC. People with dementia can have problems with memory, attention, judgment and problem solving, communication and visual perception, in addition to typical age-related vision changes.
Dementia is not a normal part of aging, according to the National Institute on Aging, but about a third of all people age 85 and older may have some form of dementia.
(Featuring Shania Sheton and Jamie Gumbrecht)
Source: CNN Brasil
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