November Shines the Spotlight on Family Caregivers

National Fam­ily Care­givers Month, observed every Novem­ber, is a nationally-recognized month that seeks to draw atten­tion to the many rewards and strug­gles fac­ing fam­ily care­givers. Accord­ing to the National Fam­ily Care­givers Asso­ci­a­tion, there are over 65 mil­lion fam­ily care­givers across the coun­try who pro­vide “80 per­cent of our nation’s long-term-care ser­vices”. Cur­rently, fam­ily care­givers pro­vide over $306 bil­lion annu­ally for “free care­giv­ing ser­vices” to their loved ones.”

The Coun­cil for Older Adults under­stands that infor­mal care­givers (fam­ily, friends and neigh­bors) increas­ingly share the respon­si­bil­ity for pro­vid­ing care and com­fort for an older loved one. While there is great honor in care­giv­ing for a loved one, there is also stress, self-sacrifice and many challenges.

In response to these, the Coun­cil for Older Adults of Delaware County has expanded ser­vices avail­able to care­givers in an effort to assist local care­givers in keep­ing older loved ones liv­ing at home for as long as pos­si­ble. These include the SENIOR CHOICES pro­gram, offer­ing in-home ser­vices, monthly care­giver work­shops, coun­sel­ing and care­giver respite. In addi­tion, the Coun­cil for Older Adults offers an Elder and Care­giver Resource Cen­ter, open to the pub­lic, and free Life­Cards to record impor­tant med­ical infor­ma­tion for older loved ones.

Dur­ing the month of Novem­ber, look for dis­plays with care­giver infor­ma­tion at the Delaware County Dis­trict Library (Main & Orange branches) as well as at Buehler’s.

If you are a fam­ily care­giver, take time this month to cel­e­brate who you are, and the impor­tance of what you are doing. While Novem­ber may be the offi­cial month to rec­og­nize your acts as a fam­ily care­giver, every month, and every day, is one in which you make a difference.

If you would just like to find out what infor­ma­tion and ser­vices are avail­able for your elderly loved one, and for you, call the Coun­cil for Older Adults at 740–363-6677 or 800–994-2255. More care­giver infor­ma­tion is avail­able on our web­site at < growingolder.org >.

The Coun­cil for Older Adults is a local non­profit orga­ni­za­tion respon­si­ble for plan­ning, devel­op­ing, coor­di­nat­ing and pro­vid­ing ser­vices for older adults and their fam­i­lies in Delaware County. Among the Council’s ser­vices are the county-wide Meals On Wheels pro­gram and Senior Choices, a pro­gram that pro­vides com­pre­hen­sive care man­age­ment and in-home ser­vices. Ser­vices pro­vided by the Coun­cil are made pos­si­ble in part by fund­ing through our local senior ser­vices levy.

Posted by Gary Henery on Nov 14 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.