Title:Health alumna offers guidance, resources for caregivers

When her father was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, Rachael Piltch-Loeb (NHS’12) noticed a glaring gap in resources.

Support groups and offerings were aimed toward an older audience demographic, not for younger patients and caregivers, or for her generation: internet-savvy millennials.

Piltch-Loeb, who studied health care management and policy at Georgetown, realized her experience and unique skillset in health research and communications could help those in similar situations.

Georgetown was the beginning of her research and communications career—and introduced her to her husband and best friends. Piltch-Loeb’s first job after graduation was as a full-time research assistant for Michael Stoto, retired professor emeritus in the School of Health’s department of health management and policy. She is now a public health professor, researcher, private consultant, and expert source for publica- tions such as The New York Times, The BBC, and USA Today.

Before her father’s experience with early-onset Alzheimer’s, Piltch-Loeb said she would have considered herself educated in navigating the health care system. She became familiar on a different level while navigating the complex structure with limited offerings in available resources and support, for a disease about which little is known for certain.

The Millennial Caregiver: Caring for Loved Ones in the Busiest Years of Your Life was inspired by her family’s caregiving experience and covers the journey from creating initial care- taking plans to dealing with grief.

“It felt like putting pen to paper and collating the lessons our family and others had learned could be helpful,” says Piltch-Loeb. “Even though it was time-consuming, it also felt like an important way to process our experiences.”

The book format also allowed her to highlight the human component around a sensitive topic “where focusing on just numbers and statistics is never going to tell the whole story.”

As a part of the new “sandwich generation” she also had a unique, but increasingly common, perspective: trying to capture the dueling challenges of caregiving for both parents and children. Though the book speaks to a specific demographic, Piltch-Loeb hopes it can be an easy entry point for a broader audience in search of strategic material, especially the communications strategies, which readers have especially found useful.

“I think that’s the whole reason for writing, whether it reaches a few people or thousands” she says. “I want to help others with a resource for navigating this experience.”

Learn more about the book on the Alumni Authors site >