Proclamation 6077—National Family Caregivers Week, 1989

Each day, an estimated two million Americans help older relatives maintain their dignity and independence. They buy groceries for them or take them shopping; they help them maintain their homes; and they assist them with personal care. In many cases, family members provide home nursing care for an older relative who is incapacitated by illness or disability.

These caregivers are unsung heroes and heroines. Rendering service without pay, and often in addition to meeting the demands of their own careers and immediate families, these men and women provide a powerful example of faithfulness and generosity. Family caregivers -- whether they are spouses, daughters, sons, grandchildren, or in-laws -- offer invaluable help to older relatives who might otherwise be forced to live in an institutional setting.

All of us owe a debt of gratitude to the hardworking men and women who give older members of our society the love, respect, comfort, and assistance they need and deserve. More important, however, these men and women merit our recognition and support.

Throughout the United States, family caregivers are aided in their efforts by homemaker programs, by respite and day care services, and by agencies that provide home-delivered meals. This week, we acknowledge the importance of such community support services and reaffirm our commitment to ensuring that family caregivers have greater access to them.

In grateful recognition of the contributions that caregivers make to their families and the Nation, the Congress, by House Joint Resolution 282, has designated the week of November 19 through November 25, 1989, as "National Family Caregivers Week" and has requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of this week.

Now, Therefore, I, George Bush, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the week of November 19 through November 25, 1989, as National Family Caregivers Week. I call upon the American people to observe this week with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-second day of November, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and fourteenth.

GEORGE BUSH