Do programs like Family Care encourage dependency?

A reader commented on Family Care and other programs like it:

Even though I see a lot of effectiveness with the program, I see first hand the abuse. The money spent on providing care for someone who should be challenged to do more for themselves.

The extensive equipment that is purchased so that the client has everything they want regardless of whether they physically need it or rather should have it.

Paying of family members to provide care even though the client should re-trained to do it themselves as well as family members who should want to care for others out of love not money.

I am hopeful but not optimistic that as the population ages, more people will realize that we need to help seniors HELP THEMSELVES so as to age more gracefully and safely.

Are too many clients being overserved, having things done for them that they could do themselves? Are we “enabling” older adults to be dependent? I’m hoping some of you will continue this discussion, because I don’t have any professional knowledge about it.

I do have personal experience with my mother, who’s now over 85, living in independent senior apartments, and needing more help to get along. She’s frail and no longer drives. Judging by this brave woman, who's always made decisions that would keep her independent and not "burden" others, elders eventually reach a point at which no amount of retraining can compensate for lost health and abilities.

And daughters like me are pressured by jobs to support their families and responsibilities to their own children. That can get in the way of expressing love through caregiving the way we might like to do it.