“Caregiving: Let’s talk about it” was a free and open-to-the-public forum hosted by the Federation’s Northwest Suburban Region March 28 at the Brooklyn Park Community Center, where nearly 70 attendees heard speakers on the challenges of caregiving. 

Karin Patrick, Senior Federation Health Information manager, spoke on steps to take when becoming a caregiver, including assessing care recipient needs, but equally important, meeting caregiver’s needs. Patrick covered caregiving within the home and also in assisted living, nursing homes or other living settings. 

Guest speaker Marge Thurin of ElderCare Rights Alliance reviewed her organization’s services, including training for caregivers that not only includes interaction with the care receiver, but also their legal rights, and how to act as an advocate for the recipient. Best of all, this caregiver training is essentially free.

Forum attendees also had the opportunity to meet with 26 vendors covering a spectrum of caregiving services, including: home health care agencies, The Metropolitan Area Agency on Aging, hospice services, care managers, durable medical equipment providers, non-medical home care and companion agencies, adult day programs, home maintenance and chore services, personal response systems and transportation.

Senior Federation staff was on hand with the Federation's newly published 2008 Caregiving Choices: A Minnesota Elder-Care Resource Guide that covers the topics of Patrick’s presentation and includes an extensive resource directory. The 60+-page guide is free to Federation members by calling 651/645-0261 or 1-877/645-0261. The guide is $5 for non-members.

“More and more of us are facing caregiving challenges,” said Patrick. “Our 2008 Caregiving Choices: A Minnesota Elder-care Resource Guide was published to help caregivers be successful in dealing with those challenges.”