“My husband jokes that if people didn’t like [male anatomy] jokes, we wouldn’t have been able to do it,” Lauren Miller Rogen, wife of actor/writer/producer/director Seth Rogen, told an overflowing crowd at the Women’s Networking Meetup last week at the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care’s 2024 Fall Conference in Washington, DC.
The comment elicited much laughter, as intended, but Lauren’s topic was no laughing matter.
The “it” to which she was referring was the in-home care her mother, Adele, required due to dementia. Adele had received a diagnosis of dementia in 2012, when she was 55, although by that time she had been displaying symptoms for a few years, Lauren said.
“Unfortunately, before my mom was diagnosed, I saw Alzheimer’s and dementia with my grandparents,” said Lauren, a screenwriter, director and producer. But that familiarity didn’t make her mother’s diagnosis any less “terrifying” when it occurred, she added.
“We spent those first few years … feeling very sad and scared and not knowing what to do, but then ultimately realized that because of my husband’s platform, we had an opportunity to say something and to share our story, because it was clear that so many people that I spoke to about it, didn’t know,” she said.
Saying something started with a fundraiser for Alzheimer’s, even though “we didn’t know exactly for what,” Lauren said. Through that event, however, “I realized that … I was not alone and that I was in, unfortunately, quite a big community of young people and people in general who were dealing with this,” she added.
She and Seth — known for movies such as “The 40-Year Old Virgin,” “Pineapple Express” and “Knocked Up,” among numerous other roles — founded Hilarity for Charity in 2012 to raise awareness — especially, at least at first, among younger people, who may have less knowledge of the disease than others. In its dozen years, the organization has grown to offer education, virtual and in-person support groups, a brain health program, grants to help people afford in-home care, research funding and more. The group estimates that it has raised $23 million to support those efforts. It even has a Senior Living & Care Executive Council now.
Lauren and Seth now are some of the executive producers behind “Taking Care,” a not-yet-released 38-minute documentary directed by James Keach, who also directed the 2014 documentary “Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me,” about the country music legend’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis and subsequent farewell tour with his family.
“Taking Care,” Lauren said, provides a look at “what my mom’s everyday struggles were like, what my family was dealing with as my mom sunk deeper and deeper into this disease.” The movie begins and ends with Seth’s 2014 testimony at a Senate hearing.
Lauren made the film, she said, “to bring awareness to what millions of people are going through and what we need to do as caregivers, as citizens, as people, to elevate this situation so that the level of care can reach what it is needed to be to take care of the millions of people who are dealing with this disease and the caregivers who are dealing with this disease.”
Those attending the NIC Women’s Networking Meetup caught a glimpse of the documentary, with the full film being shown for only the second time the next day during a session at the conference that was followed by a discussion on memory care.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Seth says of Adele’s symptoms in the documentary. “This is so far beyond what I ever would’ve thought this disease was capable of, and millions and millions of people are dealing with this. No one’s talking about it.”
The Rogens are hoping that through their work with Hilarity for Charity and screenings of “Taking Care,” more people will be talking about Alzheimer’s and the caregiving struggles facing families of those with the disease. (Those interested in hosting a screening of the documentary can visit this website.)
Susan Barlow, co-founder and managing partner of Blue Moon Capital Partners and chair of the NIC Board of Directors, is counting on senior living executives to do their part.
“It’s up to us, this group in this room,” she told those attending the Women’s Networking Meetup as she concluded an interview with Lauren. “We’ve got to do something for our industry. If we don’t do it, who in our industry will?”
Lois A. Bowers is the editor of McKnight’s Senior Living. Read her other columns here. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) at Lois_Bowers.
