Challenge Grant Leads to Caregiving Ministry in Sheridan

Written by: Stella Montano, AARP Wyoming State Volunteer President
The opinions expressed in this column of those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect AARP policy.

Sometimes, we see a need for change, and we hope that change happens. The alternative is we drive that change and become part of the solution. This is what happened with the story I will share with you. Holy Name Catholic Church in Sheridan, Wyoming saw a need for a ministry that seemed to be lacking. It was serving and supporting the caregiver population. Those that care for someone, be it a spouse or adult child, friend or relative often need more support than what they may be receiving. After several discussions on what this ministry might look like and what tools were necessary to be able to support our caregivers, we were ready to go.

Fast forward, AARP’s annual Community Challenge Grants were announced. It was here that the church decided to include all community caregivers and not just parishioners from Holy Name Catholic Church. The grant was fully funded by the AARP National Caregiver Program and we were extremely grateful. We had already put together our plan. We decided to have a 10-week caregiver series. We chose Monday evenings and started on Sept. 11. Our plan was to have a main speaker – an expert on the topic being presented and a caregiver testimonial each week.

We carefully chose 10 topics that we thought would be most useful to caregivers. We knew there were dozens of topics that we could cover but we had to narrow it to 10. Topics included:

• Role reversal – between spouses and between children and their parents
• Sharing information -- organizing information for those who need to know
• Legal considerations such as wills and powers of attorney
• Financial planning including how and when to qualify for Medicaid and other assistance programs
• Safety and accessibility – accommodations that make homes safer and easier to manage
• Home healthcare basics and working with the medical team
• Navigating nursing home decisions and home healthcare
• End of life decisions/resources -- Catholic teaching on medical ethics
• Funeral planning and other arrangements
• Understanding and accessing Veterans benefits

To dive a bit deeper here’s how some of the sessions ran: Wills and Trusts...this is something most caregivers encounter during their journey. For this topic we invited an attorney to speak who had real expertise. When we talked about Veterans benefits we invited the Department of Veterans Affairs (VAMC) to talk about benefits for caregivers caring for a veteran. During the session about Hospice, Home Care & Palliative Care a physician (oncologist) was the speaker. All sessions were well attended. The caregiver testimonials were provided by caregivers with personal experience as it related to the topic presented. All sessions were kept to an hour including time for questions from the audience. We provided a meal for all attendees as well as the volunteers. We were especially blessed to have a wonderful volunteer cook who prepared meals for each session. Enough food for 50 people was prepared weekly. Each week’s meal was sponsored by private donors. We had five amazing volunteers who provided respite while the caregivers were in the training session. These volunteers all had caregiving experience with two of them being retired nurses. The attendees looked forward to each Monday evening and enjoyed playing bingo and other activities. This created a bond with one another and the respite volunteers. Logistics included a room large enough to hold 100 people comfortably during mealtime. The same room was used
for the presentations. Microphone, screen and computer access was available for the presenters. Caregiver support books, brochures, etc. were provided at each session for caregivers to take. A separate room was used for respite with handicap accessible bathrooms.