Caregiving

Celebrity Chef Rock Harper will be in Wichita on Saturday, August 13, 2016 to share his cooking skills with a group of African American men and women who want to learn more about preparing healthy meals.

Introducing AARP’s Pop Up! Family Caregiver Game. The game that helps you learn about valuable caregiving resources and lets you enter for the chance to win prizes. Just like a game show, you play with everyone else and score points for each question you answer correctly. Instant prizes will be given away daily at random! And, at the end of the game, one lucky sweepstakes winner will receive a gift card! You’ll earn an entry into the sweepstakes every time you answer a question. Learn how to join the game in three easy steps.

AARP Kansas staff, and volunteers from across the state, were joined by members of the Greater Topeka Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors for a ribbon cutting ceremony at the new state office location on Friday, May 20th. The new office is located at 6220 SW 29 th Street, Suite 300 in Topeka. It's near the corner of 29th and Wanamaker and shares the building with the Community Blood Bank.

Charity cares for her grandmother, Joan, who suffered a severe stroke several years ago. Charity, along with other family members, helps take care of Joan so she can remain in her own home. While difficult at times, Charity wouldn’t have it any other way.

Volunteers are a critical resource for AARP and the work we do to make a positive impact on the lives of others right here in Kansas. The AARP Kansas office is looking for volunteers who are interested in working on a variety of issues that are important to Kansans and their families.

The following is testimony provided to the Kansas House and Human Services Committee on February 3, 2016 by AARP Kansas Director Maren Turner.

AARP Kansas volunteers and staff fanned out across the Statehouse in the first week of the legislative session delivering messages, attached to cookies, about the Kansas CARE Act that AARP is hoping to get passed into law this session. The sweet treat delivery was part of AARP’s 3 rd annual “Cookie Day at the Capitol,” to call attention to issues important to Kansans as they age.

On Wednesday, February 3, 2016, the Kansas House Health and Human Services Committee will hold a hearing on House Bill 2058, the CARE Act. The CARE Act, introduced at the request of AARP Kansas to support the state's more than 345,000 caregivers, will assist caregivers when the person for whom they are providing care is released from the hospital. The CARE Act allows hospital patients to designate a caregiver whose name is recorded in hospital records. If a caregiver is designated, the hospital must notify the caregiver when the patient is to be discharged and must give instructions on how to care for the patient.

Forty Native American cooks took part in the Intertribal Solutions annual cooking class sponsored by AARP, The American Association of Indian Physicians (AAIP) and the four federally recognized tribes in Kansas. The class is held in November each year to call attention to diabetes as November is Native American Heritage Month and Diabetes Awareness Month. The cooks learned how to make a healthy, nutritional meal using traditional indigenous foods.

AARP is honoring the 40 million Americans – more than 345,000 from Kansas – who help older parents, grandparents, spouses and other loved ones live independently at home, where they want to be. The unpaid care they provide – managing medications, cooking meals, driving to appointments, performing complex medical tasks and more – is valued at about $4.1 billion annually in Kansas alone.