February 26, 2014
Caregiver support group, Healthy Aging Task Force
Present: Inez Janger, Roberta Raimon, Stanley Schonbrun, Polly Simpkins, Beth Toomey, Terre Young.
Our goal, to develop a forecast of what caregivers need ~ by understanding what island caregivers need today. We talked about finding the population data that Rosetta gave last meeting and Mary Beth agreed to apply to the AARP formula. We realize that we must create a method for including the long term visitors in this data as they certainly use island services when here. We will look to brokers, agencies like VNA, the hospital for their numbers and ideas.
Reviewing the work plan was our next effort. We looked the plan over with much discussion and have revised some of the wording, adding explanations for the HATFís main group which will review this plan along with all the groupsí plans. Inez will revise and submit our plan by this Friday, the 28th. All agreed that we have a good plan and we will understand from the main group where our plan changes and work from there.
Inez shared information of a meeting she had with a woman from Centers for Elder Living or was it called Alturum? They are working much as our community is to support healthy aging and might be looking for a pilot group to sponsor. One of their goals is to offer plans of care that go across multiple resources….and so are we and the HATF.
Polly and Stanley reported on their conversations with Allison McKinley and Victoria Haselbarth for their input relating to caregivers in their circles. They are both great resources for caregivers and for us.
A question was asked how do caregivers find out about their needs? It is felt that they donít know how to find them. Understandably, some caregivers live comfortably in denial and consequently suffer from exhaustion and isolation. We want to find the caregivers who have not latched in to opportunities for themselves. An ultimate goal for us will be to create a system that people can easily access information from. We will need a good delivery point at the right time. We will need good marketing and endurance of our message. Beth pointed out how so much effort has great energy and purpose and peters out in time.
Our next job will be to organize our own table of contents and figure out where and how all our gathered information is presented with good order and structure.. We have a good sense of caregiverís needs and we need to organize our information.
As Hospice is having their annual meeting on Wednesday the 12th, we will need to find another meeting time. Terre will create a doodle link with a calendar for all to choose the best next date. Terre will also be away at a hospice conference on the 26th and we will also talk about meeting once a month rather than twice.
Respectfully submitted, Terre D. Young
| 