National Family Caregivers Month is November

| Wednesday, November 21, 2012
By John Adams


In November we celebrate National Family Caregivers Month, and the president proclaims that we honor the almost 66 million family caregivers in America. These people are often parents, husbands, and wives, grown children, friends, and neighbors who help those they love when they are disabled, seriously ill, or are limited due to aging. These people perform tirelessly each day in homes, medical facilities, assisted living residences, and other places all over the United States.

Many caregivers, brave as they are, feel that they are in isolation from all help as they try to maintain their own jobs and health while caring for loved ones, according to Dan Fox, who is President of Right At Home of the Desert. He says that his group understands the exhaustion and feelings that come up when providing home care, making caregivers feel lonely and overwhelmed. It offers no-cost support, programs, and resources that any caregiver could make use of.

Dozens of organizations and online resources are out there for family caregivers providing in home care, such as Family Caregiver Alliance and their many services and publications to fit your needs.Family Caregiver Alliance offers services and publications based on caregiver needs at the local, state and national levels. The group's website at offers a plethora of information from caregiving tips and fact sheets to personal stories and newsletters. You also can call the National Center on Caregiving located in San Francisco, Calif.

National Alliance for Caregiving is a nonprofit coalition of national organizations that connect family caregivers with beneficial information.

The non-profit Maryland organization National Family Caregivers Association believes in teaching, helping and encouraging similar organizations with this mission statement: Have self-belief, care for your health, be ready to help and assert your rights.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has come up with a state-sponsored website that enables you to have important details about Medicare and other necessary facts about family caregiving. The site also has useful links to similar organizations and talks at length about what a caregiver ought to know and how to attend to perennially sick people.

In order to get a list of Palm Springs in home caregiver services and helpful groups in your area, call governmental agencies in the county like the Health and Human Services, Social Service, or Public Health Departments. There are also such departments in area hospitals/medical facilities, senior centers, and faith-based agencies where you can get more information.

Fox stated that family caregivers should have the support they need for the challenges they're facing. Anybody involved in this work understands that resources and encouragement are required if they are going to deal with their responsibilities as well as maintain their own lives and health. The whole community is asked to give the caregivers they know a pat on the back, a word of gratitude, and an offer of help that lasts beyond Family Caregivers Month.




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