In this issue:
"Excerpt from Eldercare At Home"
Caring for an older person at home requires a team of people with different skills and perspectives. Physicians, nurses, social workers, and clergy all make important, specialized contributions. It is family members or friends, however, who give day-to-day care. Your close personal relationship with the person you are caring for helps you to understand and interpret his or her feelings, wishes, and needs. You are also the first to become aware of many physical and emotional problems, the first to deal with those problems, and often are the person who carries out plans that you and other team members develop.
In caring for an older family member, you must learn to communicate to other team members, professional and lay caregivers. Caregiving can be a very positive experience for both the person who is being cared for as well as the caregiver. However, it can also be a stressful, and physically and emotionally draining experience. Remember that you need to take care of yourself too if you want to be an effective caregiver for another. This is why it is important to be well informed, know your limits, communicate with other team members, and ask for help when you need it. Being in touch with your own feelings and needs will help you to balance your caregiving time and your own life needs as well.
To learn more about these issues, please check out the first chapter in our online publication Eldercare at Home. To view this chapter, visit the
FHA website.
The FHA's popular online resource,
Eldercare at Home, has helped many lay caregivers to develop an orderly problem-solving approach to managing care at home and to learn how to work cooperatively with health professionals in order to care for an elderly person. This resource, written by professionals who have extensive experience in geriatric care, has been available for free viewing, download and distribution from the
FHA website for some time. Coming this December,
Eldercare at Home will be available for purchase by the general public.
Customers will have the option to purchase this publication in one of three formats: the standard workbook with all of the original text plus many descriptive illustrations, the workbook with a cd-rom containing presentations in Powerpoint - ideal for a group seminar , and a low-literacy version which will offer more easy to understand illustrations and an abridged text.
Topics covered in Eldercare at Home include:
- Pain
- Memory Problems
- Depression
- Problems of Daily Living
- Using Medicines Safely
- Choosing a Nursing Home
... and many others
Be the first to know when this new workbook is made available. Contact Sara Levandusky at 212-308-1414 or by email at
slevandusky@americangeriatrics.org.
To view the current online version of Eldercare at Home, visit
www.healthinaging.org/public_education/eldercare/.
According to a survey by the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP, individuals in more than 22 million American households care for adults age 50 and older. Because providing care for a loved one can be stressful and exhausting, caregivers often risk their own health and unwittingly compromise the care they provide their aging loved one by neglecting their own physical and mental health.
To address the needs of millions of caregivers across the country, the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (n4a) and the Administration on Aging (AoA) have created a new program called Making the Link: Connecting Caregivers with Services through Physicians. The program is designed to help health providers identify caregivers at risk for physical and emotional problems and refer them to services provided by Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs) that can provide much needed relief
The American Geriatrics Society and the AGS Foundation for Heath in Aging are participating in the project by encouraging AGS members to become involved. Because geriatricians and other geriatric health care providers often work with their patients' families and caregivers when providing care, they are able to identify caregivers at risk for physical and emotional problems, and through Making the Link, can refer people to helpful community resources.
Tell your physician about Making the link! For further information about Making the Link, please visit the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging Web site at www.n4a.org. N4A also runs the N4A Eldercare Locator, a toll-free nationwide telephone service (1-800-677-1116), which helps caregivers locate services for older adults in their own communities. This service is supported by a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Administration on Aging.
The AGS Foundation for Health in Aging held its fourth annual Lifetime of Caring Gala on Monday, October 27, 2003 at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. This year, the FHA honored Ambassador Corinne "Lindy" Boggs with the Lifetime of Caring Award and Raymond V. Gilmartin, Chairmen, President and CEO of Merck & Co., Inc. with the Discovery Award. Ambassador Boggs' daughter, Emmy-winning broadcaster Cokie Roberts, emceed the evening which included festive Louisiana cuisine and entertainment provided by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.
"I am honored beyond measure to receive the Lifetime of Caring Award from the Foundation for Health in Aging, and in so doing, am joining dear friend and past recipient President Jimmy Carter in this distinction," said Ambassador Boggs. (President Carter and his wife, Rosalyn, received the Lifetime of Caring Award in 2000.) "Meeting the needs of our aging population requires ever increasing awareness of aging issues. I commend the Foundation's enlightened leadership for bringing these important concerns to the attention of our nation's political leadership."
