[Music] Hello everyone. This is Debbie Surriani and this is Age Friendly Chumsford. Happy to have you. I'm the director of
the Chelmsford Senior Center and I'm also the co-chair of the age friendly Chumsford Initiative and we're happy to have two wonderful guests today. Um, we're talking about caregiving support and so um, one person that I brought is
on our staff here at the senior center in Chelmsford and that's April Hunt. Thank you for having me. Great to have you, April. and tell everybody what your um I always you you have such a long title. Even though I'm your boss, I'm
like, what is she again? So, elder support services coordinator. There you go. That's what she is. And um so tell tell people a little bit about what what you do. Um at the senior center. at the senior center. Part of elder support
services coordinator is I run the um caregiver caregiver support group with my co-orker Colleen Normandy. Um it's a support group for caregivers to kind of go and talk about the things they're encountering with their loved ones with
dementia or Alzheimer's. Um is that in person or on Zoom? I forgot. Currently, it's on Zoom because we have some people kind of far away. It's easier to do it if they're taking especially if their loved one is is with them. Yeah. They
can Yes, it's free. 1:00 twice a month on Mondays. So, you also run the the the um companion program. Yes. It's an amazing program that so many families can take advantage of. Definitely. Yes.
It's the companion program is for a loved a loved one who you're caring for at home. You can have a companion come in and give you respit so you can go and do your errands. Um, a qualified companion will stay with your loved one.
One-on-one interactions, games, um, puzzles, um, exercise. They can walk the neighborhood. They, um, sing alongs even. Just something so that the caregiver can go and do their
Yeah. their errands or sometimes they even take a nap when we get there. So yeah, whatever the caregiver needs. Such a vital resource. Thank you for the great work you do. Thank you. And April does so much more, but we only have a half an hour show. So those are the things we're highlighting right now. Um
but then we also have a wonderful guest, Sarah Turkot, and you're from Bridges of Epoch. Yes. Thank you so much for having me today. Thank you so much for coming. And your title? Sure. So I am Sarah Turka and I work as an area community
liaison supporting epic senior living mainly their bridges by epic memory care communities and as a liaison I am supporting our communities out with their greater community efforts. So I do work in supporting education for our local hospitals and rehabs but also
working with great centers like yourself in providing educational and support group offerings for local caregivers. Um we really take pride in a lot of the resources that we provide and supporting local caregivers um with just support
and connecting them with one another. You've been a wonderful community partner of ours for years really. we've worked together for so long. And so when we were talking about um doing a caregiver speaker series on Monday
nights to try to um outreach to the community, uh people who may not be able to come to our senior center during our regular hours Monday through Friday. A lot of people my age actually who are caring for their loved ones, their their
f their parents or their aunts or um you know even a lot of spouses. You know what we call you folks? What the sandwich generation? Oh, there we are. There we are. Yep. Absolutely. Because you are busy working and keeping up with your own daytoday lives on top of, you
know, caring for an elderly parent. Absolutely. I'm just a big grilled cheese. Yep. Uh anyways, but but you know when we wanted to do this series, we reached out to Sarah and we said, you know, would you like to partner with us? And it's been
really lovely. April's put um a lot of work into it with you um to put these these projects these uh programs together. So, I wanted to ask you to highlight some of them that we're doing. So, they'll be starting um Monday, May
12th is the first one. So, that one, tell me a little bit about April, the one um that's uh dementia and caregiving, your questions answered, and that's Monday night. Yes. Yep. They're all Monday night starting at six o'clock. This one is with Karen Copala.
She's also a certified dementia practitioner. Um to get the ball rolling, we just wanted to have somebody who could ask um answer all of the basic questions that caregivers have or that they don't even know they should be asking. Yeah, you can. You're never
going to be prepared when you start caregiving for a loved one. You might new behaviors might come out, new characteristics, things that you might not be ready for. So, it's good. You might have some questions, but it's good to have somebody who is kind of like you
will be, you know, you'll be on hand too later on. um to have somebody who has been there, the experience so that they can answer all the questions that come up and let you know what you might be in for. Yeah, I love that because you know
so many caregivers especially with dementia when you meet one person with dementia you meet one person with dementia and while everyone's journey is different you know there are common things that come up and even if someone's loved one is not experiencing
the difficult symptoms or behaviors that may arise they could learn from other caregivers so that if something does start happening they could learn from other people's questions and and learn how to embrace or brace themselves for what might come down the road. Exactly.
And what to be ready for, like if you if you're not sure if you should start looking at assisted living, when you should, what the signs are, you know, all of those things. We just want to kind of give a basic one to start with. So, that's a good one for folks to attend and just kind of get a gist of
what's going and not just for uh caregivers of of dementia, people with dementia, but also um caregiving in general questions. Absolutely. So, we're trying to really let people know some of the issues that come up as a caregiver and um you know, we've seen so much that
people um really neglect themselves and so a lot of times what we're trying to do is take care of that person so they can care for their loved one. And so, and and so we do a lot of that family caregiving. Now, you at Bridges, Sarah,
also have a caregiver support uh group on a regular basis. Is that Zoom? We do we actually offer both in-person support group sessions as well as virtual because as you shared earlier every caregiver has a different schedule. You know for some caregivers it is hard
because they are working full-time. It's hard to get out of the house. So doing them in the evening over the Zoom platform is very convenient. Uh we also do offer in-person support group programs as well as monthly education. I mean this month one of our topics is um
understanding wandering um and next month we actually have the ethics of fibbing uh because sometimes reality orientation can be tough um for people living with dementia. But what I love about our in-person programs is that we do allow folks to bring their memory
impaired loved one for them to do an engagement opportunity while the caregiver does the program with other caregivers. And it's wonderful because it gives that caregiver a little bit of respit time, but it also allows their loved one to benefit from engagement and
stimulation and connecting with their community. So, it's really a win-win opportunity. And I'm excited because with planning with April, some of the programs that we'll be offering with your careg Monday night caregiver series, we're going to have a program for people to bring their memory
impaired loved one with them. Um so so you're the speaker on the second one if you look at the second slide. Then we have effective communication techniques and that's with Sarah and we will have uh you will have some of your staff and we may have some of our staff in the
building to be able to um provide that support for for loved ones and their their um their families both. Yes, absolutely. And it's going to be a wonderful opportunity because again it can be hard, you know, finding a
caregiver or hiring a home health aid for just an hour or two. So to allow that barrier to be removed and for you to bring your loved one, you know, you don't have to worry about someone coming to your home. But I also think about that engagement opportunity. You know
that engagement and stimulation is great for both the caregivers to connect with other people and share those resources as well as their memory impaired loved one. I mean people at home are just not getting enough engagement and stimulation. Absolutely. Caregivers
included. Exactly. Absolutely. I want to jump on that that fibbing though because we do want to touch upon that while in these series because so many people especially if they're younger find it so hard to kind of fib or go along with what their loved one is, you know,
talking about. Absolutely. And we've got to kind of emphasize that it's okay to do that. You're entering their world and in their world that's what's going on. So it's you're not really fibbing because it's in their world. Absolutely. It comes from a place of compassion. Yes. Right? Reality orientation can be
hard for someone who's living with a cognitive impairment. You know, a classic example is is someone who may be looking for their mom and their mom has been passed for over 10 years or more and reality orienting her that their mom has passed away. They're reliving that
grief again every single time they hear. So, how can we utilize communication techniques to bridge better communication and not create kind of turmoil and distress, right, when these moments come up. And that's why this po,
you know, topic effective communication is so popular because people do have a hard time connecting with people with dementia as their ability to speak may diminish or sometimes, you know, aphasia can be difficult to to navigate and and
communicating and sometimes we have to be better about learning body language and and you know, what are they trying to communicate? So, this um program is going to be great because we're going to talk about common threads that we see in communication, but also allow caregivers
to ask questions and maybe share some of the challenges they're facing so that we can help them to have better communication with their loved one. Exactly. This one would be a wonderful one to go to if your friend is also going through this and you're trying to find some ways to stay connected to that
friend. 100%. I see a lot of that where people just kind of lose that friendship because they're not really sure how to be with that person anymore and that's when they really need somebody. Yeah. They really need somebody when they're going through this. They need their friends. Right. Right. Absolutely. So
our next one we're having on Monday, June 2nd. Tell me a little bit about that, April. Yes. This is um supporting independence and the speaker will be Nicole McGearan. I hope I'm pronouncing her name right. She's going to be she's from the
Alzheimer's Association. She's going to be talking about and we do have quite a few um loved ones who are this who still live on their own and the children come and visit them or check in on them all the time. And there's a hard line
between how much independence do you keep, you know, do you h let them have and then when do you start kind of taking the reinss? Especially um we're going to be talking about maybe when is a good time to take the keys away. Yep. When to start taking over the bills, you
know, and another topic a lot of people don't think about, do they have firearms? when you know when should you maybe think about taking the firearms or locking them up or how to address firearms in general. Yeah. So that to me
is, you know, a very important topic. It is and I think it will lend information for caregivers to act before a crisis. I mean all of those topics are very important and these conversations and education should come before a crisis. So I love that you're having her for
this topic. and and when to contact the police and maybe give a a picture of your loved one in case they do start wandering later on or that a lot of times paranoia sets in and they may call the police on their own. So if you've already kind of alerted the police that,
you know, my loved one is recently diagnosed with dementia, you know, they might already have it on record. So they're kind of aware of that this might happen. Absolutely. And there are lots of technology things too like the safety net program that the police have partnered with us. We'll have all kinds
of information there for you. And also at the senior center all the time and and at at Bridges, you know, we have lots of information and and resources for you. And that's what we're trying to do is just offer all those so that you know that there's information out there
and and that we're here. um if you can't make it to these events, you know, you know our number and call us, you know. Um so, so we're around to to offer you those types of uh little tricks that have worked for a lot of other people.
So, Sarah, you put a a really wonderful um uh panel discussion together for Monday, June 9th. Can you tell me a little bit about who's coming to that? Yeah, thank you so much. I mean this is incredible that you guys are putting together this effort because again it
doesn't come with the handbook right when you become a caregiver to anybody it doesn't come with the handbook. So the panel we put together are really local professionals and resources that caregivers most ha have the most questions about. So, we have Margaret
Hoe who is with Echel Hoey and Okconor Attorneys of Law um locally in Actton and she's going to be talking about legal considerations and planning for the future. you know, what documents need to be in place, you know, what happens if those documents are not in
place and really having that overall education as to what you really need to have as a caregiver. What legal documents should be in place so that you do not have to experience a crisis. Um, so I think it and maybe when to start
and when to start. Exactly. because people even with a dementia diagnosis, some people still have the ability to sign legal forms. So again, early diagnosis, having these, you know, conversations earlier on truly help families when it comes to their planning
for their future or even if they're they don't have dementia. again, um, like if if someone wanted to come with their parent and it it would really kickstart that conversation of, you know, mom or dad, what, you know, what would you like
me to do to help? How can we set things up so that I can make sure I support you and what you want or what what kind you and I would benefit from this from this presentation? Because for the grace of God, there go I. It's not just dementia. I mean, someone could have a stroke.
Someone could have a terrible accident. I mean, life can change in a moment's notice. And the last thing you want to do as anyone's caregiver, whether it be dementia for you suddenly become someone's caregiver, you don't want to have to go through court. You don't want to have to go through probate to
advocate for your loved one. And really, at the end of the day, this these are what these documents help caregivers do, right? Um, we also have another panelist, um, Joanne Fontaine. She's a local geriatric care manager as well as a nurse. And one of the big reasons
she's coming is because most people don't realize what a geriatric care manager is and the wonderful resources and support that they can provide families when it comes to just navigating health care, doctor's appointments, um family dynamics. You
know, not every family has a close, tight-knit relationship, and family dynamics can be really difficult to work through. Absolutely. Um, so someone like a geriatric care manager is wonderful because they're a neutral resource that can really help guide families, keeping
that one person that everyone has that common goal in mind for. So, I'm really looking forward to hearing her insight. Um, and then we have the wonderful Colleen Normandy who works at the Chelmsford COA with the adult day health program. Um, actually the social day
program. I'm sorry. The adult day social program. Thank you for for correcting me. It's a little different. It is. And you know, that's one of the reasons I'm excited to hear her speak because there are different models of care when it comes to social engagement and opportunities. And the program you're
running at the Chumsford COA with the social day program is topnotch. I mean, you guys really do a wonderful, wonderful job with that program. And I think it's important for caregivers to know if their loved one qualifies for a program like this, what are the
benefits? I mean, there are benefits for their loved one when it comes to that engagement and stimulation and that sense of community, but also what are the benefits for the caregiver? Yes, they do not give themselves enough time. So really, you know, overarching how
this program can support both the caregiver and their loved one. Um because if the caregiver gets run down, who who looks after their loved one? Exactly. Well, and that's exactly it. We worry sometimes we worry more about the caregiver than the person actually
living with dementia or whatever it is because the caregivers are putting themselves on the line each and every day and there's so much guilt involved. There's so so much anger. I mean, you know, not to mention any re relationship
kind of dynamics you already had with this person. Exactly. It's so difficult and and and it's not easy, but there is help out there and there is support and so we want people to know that for sure. And then um and then I'll be a part a
delight to be a part of the program and I'm going to be just talking about memory care support options because there are so many different options out there and there is something for everybody whether you're caring for someone at home or you need more
comprehensive care and you're looking at placement options. So, we're really going to talk about what are the various memory care support in our local community and what questions to ask when you're exploring these places because a lot of times people might not know what
to ask. You know, can my loved one age in place? You know, is your nursing team there 24 hours or are they on call overnight? You know, just little questions that caregivers can ask as they're exploring different options and resources for their loved one. That's
excellent. Thank you so much for putting that together. That's a great panel. I I'm looking forward to learning from these as well and going so and I've been in the the business the you know the service for very very many years. Um but I'm always looking forward to learning
more so we can share with the people who need it and and this is a great thing. Um, so I want to let say like so over the weekend I went with one of my very very best friends to go visit um Bridges
and um to visit her mom and I have to say that she is thriving there. She is happy there and she was home and alone um and not able to live with other family
members and such for various reasons or or willingness to but um finally um she moved into that place and some people feel like oh I feel so guilty because I'm putting my you know mom in a home or
or whatever and so I just saw her thrive there. She's happy. She's healthier. And it's not always a bad thing. She's more engaged than before. She's, I think, happier than she's been for many years. And so I want to highlight that to
people because there is a big stigma about, you know, um, you know, having services in or or going to, you know, live in a different home or a different situation. And it's not always a bad thing. It's it's it was wonderful. So, I
I was really happy to see her and uh thank you for sharing that. I really appreciate it creating that space, you know. Um and I'm I appreciate the education that you're going to be providing because I think that this is going to help people to understand, you
know, that there is a a support for everyone. And most people once they do come to a support group or an education program or they do to go to Colleen's social day program, they're like, "Why did I wait so long? Why didn't I know about this?" They have all these That's
why we're here. That's why we're on TV. Let the people know. Um, so I'm hoping that these programs will help break the ice. And also, I'm really excited that you have some other programs besides the education, too. I I heard that caregivers might be able to sign up for a massage during Thank you. Wow. She
just cuts it like this. Go segue segue. So, this is something that the friends of the senior center are supporting um financially and I've wanted to do for years and um April organized it for me. I was like, April, that's a great idea. Okay. And then she just she put it all
together. It was wonderful. So, April, tell me a little bit about um what you put together for starting April 24th. Yes, we um I contacted Beyond Day Spa. They're coming in. They will have a professional m masseuse come in who will
either give you a neck or neckshoulder massage or a hand massage. Um they also trained all of my companions on how to give a gentle soothing hand massage so they can do that with all of their
clients. It really is very relaxing, you know, and if they're having a bad day or they're a little agitated, a little bit, you know, oil on the skin and then, you know, a little bit of hand massage is wonderful. But the
caregivers might be very stressed as well, especially in the neck. We see that a lot. So, we're offering, we've got four Thursdays in a row. Um, I believe it's April 24th, May 1st. can't
see without my glasses. I know May 15th um at various times. So just call the senior center and book yourself. It's a 15minute appointment and the the the the massage itself and the gratuitity are all taken care of of the friends.
Yes, they're so so wonderful. And I'm talking about caregivers who are taking care of people with dementia, caregivers who take care of their adult children with mental illness or other development issues, people um who are taking care
who are moms at home. We are not going to card at the door. If you are a stressed out caregiver, we are a community and we want to take care of you. So um call and sign up. Yep. Can I I wanted to backtrack too on something you had just mentioned about um not the
guilt that comes with you know should is it time should I let my loved one or should I consider putting them you know maybe in a memory care unit. Um the first line of defense are the day programs, the support groups, the companion program. Exactly. You want to
keep your loved one at home for as long as possible, but then it as it does move on, so many of our caregivers have said when their loved one is in assisted living, they can then give them oneonone when they visit. It's totally all of
them, their family member again instead of a nurse. Right. Exactly. Yeah. They're not trying to get dinner ready or do laundry while their loved one is asking them a question. they can totally focus on them and their relationship almost gets better. Oh, I I love that.
Let's end on that. I love this idea. This has been great. Thank you for this. Thank you very much both of you for being here for all the work that you do for this. Thank you. Thanks everybody. Have a wonderful month.
[Music] Ow. Ow. Ow.