National Family Caregivers celebrated this month

It’s November, and that means it is National Family Caregivers Month, a time to recognize and honor family caregivers.
In doing so, we raise awareness of family caregiver issues, celebrate the efforts of family caregivers, help family caregivers identify themselves as such, and increase support. If you care for a loved one or neighbor – by watching out for their well-being from nearby or afar – you are a family caregiver.
Many of Care Connection’s clients and participants – and maybe even you – are family caregivers.
As part of our Care Management Program, we support family caregivers in every way that we can.
The 2020 theme for Family Caregivers Month is “Caregiving in Crisis,” a recognition that the COVID-19 Pandemic has created its own set of challenges to an already difficult job.
The pandemic has brought extra stressors, including video appointments, isolation in nursing homes, risk of COVID-19 infections, and reduced incomes. All of these are addressed in detail at the Caregivers Action Network, www.caregiveraction.org, which can provide a great resource for anyone who is a caregiver. We encourage you to take a few moments to check it out.
Care Connection provides a grandparents’ group and a dementia caregivers’ group online via Zoom for older adults. We also are offering the Caring for You, Caring for Me course on Zoom as part of the Learning Connection. To sign up for this course (which begins Nov. 16), call 1-800-748-7826. To find out more about the Family Caregiver Program services offered through Care Connection, call the Director of Care Management, Marilyn Gunter, at the same number.