Bruce Willis's dementia has taught his wife hard truths

Emma Heming Willis says she is caring for her husband, Bruce Willis, who has frontotemporal dementia nearly three years after his diagnosis, and she highlights the heavy unpaid, often unseen labor of dementia caregiving.

Emma Heming Willis writes that she is caring for her husband, Bruce Willis, who was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia nearly three years ago. She and Steve Schwab of the Elizabeth Dole Foundation place that personal experience alongside national research on unpaid caregiving. The piece describes caregiving as persistent, often invisible labor that reshapes daily life and carries emotional, physical and financial costs. It emphasizes that many families, including military and veteran households, face similar challenges. Key points: - Emma Heming Willis is caring for her husband, Bruce Willis, who has frontotemporal dementia (FTD). - A RAND survey is cited saying more than 100 million U.S. adults provide unpaid care to an adult relative or friend. - In 2019, family members and friends provided an estimated 18.6 billion hours of unpaid dementia care, valued at roughly $244 billion. - Research cited reports 30–40% of dementia caregivers experience symptoms of depression; about 59% report high to very high emotional stress and 38% report high to very high physical stress; a JAMA study linked high caregiver strain with increased mortality risk. - The Elizabeth Dole Foundation has worked to elevate caregivers’ voices and advocate for practical policy and employer engagement, including for military and veteran caregivers. Summary: The authors connect a personal caregiving experience to broader data to show the scale and strain of dementia caregiving, including for FTD. They report that caregivers often perform essential unpaid labor and face serious mental and physical stress, and they call for workplace, health system and policy attention to caregivers. Undetermined at this time.