Proclamation 6382

By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation

Each day millions of Americans provide nursing care and other forms of assistance to relatives who are incapacitated by age, illness, or disability. These family caregivers not only help to support loved ones who might otherwise be forced to live in an institutional setting but also exemplify the kind of unconditional love and commitment that is the essence of family life.

Family caregivers perform their various tasks freely and without compensation—and often at considerable sacrifice to themselves. Many of these individuals assist relatives in need while juggling the traditional demands of home, family, and career. The Department of Health and Human Services reports that nearly one-third of our Nation's family caregivers are older Americans—the spouses and siblings of the frail elderly. Statistics, however, cannot fully measure the physical, emotional, and financial costs that are incurred by family caregivers as they help with nursing care, transportation, shopping, cooking, household maintenance, and a host of other needs.

As a Nation, we owe a great debt of gratitude to family caregivers. These unsung heroes and heroines deserve our respect and our support. This week, let us recognize the importance of respite and day care services to family caregivers, and let us reaffirm our commitment to the American tradition of neighbor helping neighbor. Let us also resolve to work together, throughout the public and private sectors, to ensure that this Nation's senior citizens have the opportunities and the services that they need to live with dignity and security in the comfort of their own homes.

The Congress, by House Joint Resolution 125, has designated the weeks of November 24 through November 30, 1991, and November 22 through November 28, 1992, as "National Family Caregivers Week" and has authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of these weeks.

Now, Therefore, I, George Bush, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the weeks of November 24 through November 30, 1991, and November 22 through November 28, 1992, as National Family Caregivers Week. I urge all Americans to observe these weeks with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-fifth day of November, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-one, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and sixteenth.

George Bush

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 4:47 p.m., November 26, 1991]