Program Offers Resources, Respite for Wyoming Caregivers

Caregivers need information, but they also need to eat.

That’s why providing a meal was a must for Stella Montano when she and a fellow community member set out to organize meetups for family caregivers in Sheridan. The meetings offer them a chance to learn about local resources and to socialize with each other.

“A caregiver cannot come home from work, plan a meal, feed loved ones and then say, ‘All right, I’m going off to a meeting,’” says Montano, 68, who is the former director of family caregiver services at the local senior center in Sheridan and AARP Wyoming’s volunteer state president.

Montano knew that another key to making the meetings successful would be offering respite. So when the program launched in fall 2023, caregivers and their loved ones would come together and eat as a group in the parish hall of Holy Name Catholic Church. Then after dinner, the loved ones would go to another room and play games under the supervision of a volunteer. Meanwhile, in the main hall, caregivers would hear a presentation on a relevant topic, such as Medicaid or financial planning.

“People who didn’t know each other were coming and were staying to talk to each other,” Montano says. “That was something we didn’t plan, but it was very organic how it happened.”

The Care for Caregivers series has been a hit, drawing an average of 52 people per meeting in 2024. Last year, the program also expanded to three additional Wyoming cities—Casper, Cheyenne and Newcastle—and more are possible this fall.

Liz Brown, 49, helps her mother care for her father, who has vascular dementia. Attending the meetings in Sheridan helped her family realize the need to meet with a lawyer to discuss her parents’ will and powers of attorney and with a social worker to learn about veterans’ benefits for her father.

“You don’t realize how many people are caregivers,” Brown says. “The level of care is so different for every person.”

Statewide, an estimated 58,000 Wyoming residents provide unpaid care to an adult loved one, according to the AARP Public Policy Institute.

As part of the AARP caregiver series, each city customizes the program to its own needs. In Sheridan, Montano says, a dedicated volunteer prepares a meal from scratch on a budget of $150 a week, but some other locations order pizza or solicit donations from restaurants.

Jennifer Baier, AARP Wyoming’s outreach director, helped out with the program in Cheyenne last fall.

“Depending on how much food gets donated, we could almost do it for free,” Baier says.

She also worked in the respite care room a few times.

“It was so much fun. We played bingo and did puzzles,” Baier says. “It was nice to connect and for the caregivers to be able to focus in the other room.”

Baier adds that in 2025 and beyond, AARP Wyoming hopes to expand the program nationwide with an online version. To learn more, go to aarp.org/wy.