Huron Expositor, 2001-03-28, Page 5New,
Caregivers of elderly need more support
By Scott Hifgendorff
Expositor Editor
Caregivers looking after
elderly parents or spouses at
home need emotional and
psychological support along
with information about how
to help care for their loved
ones, said Karen Henderson,
founder of . Caregiver
Network/How to Care in
Toronto.
" I ' v e
dedicated my
Iife to
working with
caregivers and
families to
help improve
the quality of
care for the
chronically
ill," said
Henderson,
w h o
discovered,
through caring
she was experiencing
depression at the time.
"I coped with a man with a
lot of chronic diseases," she
said.
Her father was confined to
a wheelchair the last three
years of his life because of
spinal arthritis.
She credits him for the
path she is now on as an
advocate for caregivers and
their needs.
With much
of her
research
coming from
Statistics
Canada,
medical
journals and
other
statistical
resources, she
estimates
Canadian
employers
lose more
Aging
The first in a two-
part look at a
local health
counciiforum on
aging in Huron
County
for her dying father, that help
and support is not easily
available.
14 nderson led one of
several seminars for health
care providers and
community leaders who
attended a Grey Bruce Huron
Perth District Health Council
forum on rural Ontario's
aging population. A series of
speakers were in Stratford
Friday to cover a range of
topics from trends in health
care for the aging population
to the impacts of aging on
rural communities.
"My dad was not an easy
man. He felt I should do
what he said, when he said,"
she said of part of the 14
years she cared for her
chronically -ill father.
"It got to the point where,
one day, I had a panic
attack," she said, discovering
than $2.6 billion a year to
employees who are juggling
work and responsibilities for
the person they are caring
for.
But she said employers do
not realize this or take its
impact seriously enough.
Henderson said caregiving
is a crisis in Canada because
of an aging population and
other concerns such as
estimations that one in three
people over the age of 85
will suffer from dementia
and require constant care.
"We don't understand what
it's like to grow old and all of
a sudden, we are faced with a
spouse or parent who needs
care," she said.
A lack of understanding,
coupled with a busy lifestyle
and children spread across
the country,helps add to the
crisis.
She also said families are
smaller now with fewer
children to help care for an
aging parent as the next
generation grows older.
"This is the first generation
to hit 50 and still have both
parents alive," Henderson
said, adding, "We don't have
much experience coping with
having a caregiver who is 75,
looking after a 100 -year-old
parent."
And while there are 4.5
million people who can be
classified as caregivers in
Canada, equalling about
276,509 full time employees
and saving more than $5
billion each year by
providing the care
themselves, Henderson said
there's not nearly enough
support available to help
them train and be prepared
for the work a chronically ill
parent or spouse will present
to them.
"How long can this go on
without giving people the
proper support, education
and training?" she asked.
Henderson stressed the
need for education for
caregivers about the diseases
and issues they are facing.
"How can they cope if they
don't know what it's like to
have arthritis or the latter
stages of Alzheimers?" she
asked.
She also said they need to
have emotional and
psychological support and at
least one person they can talk
to openly about what they are
experiencing.
"I am thunderstruck by the
number of people -who don't
know what a Community
Care Access Centre is," said
Henderson.
The centres provide links
to a number of programs and
services in area communities
that can help caregivers find
some of the support they
need.
Despite some protests from
Community Care Access
Centre workers in Huron and
Perth, Henderson thinks the
services are kept "secret" by
the government, which
doesn't promote or advertise
the services.
"People need this
information," she said.
She also believes anyone
can be taught to use the
internet to find some of the
information they need about
particular illnesses and that
there are enough public
access sites now that anyone
can use the internet whether
or not. they have a home
computer.
Rural communities
care more
Henderson said rural
communities are more
openminded to becoming
caregivers.
"Rural areas don't have the
paranoia or hang ups as city
people do about caring for
someone," she said.
She referred to rural people
as the "church going" kind
with "neighbourly attitudes"
that make it easier for them
to care for someone.
Despite the struggles she
went through caring for her
father and the struggles she
now faces as an advocate for
caregivers, Henderson said
she would never exchange
that experience for
something else because of all
looking after her father
taught her.
"It showed me what
compassion was. The
experience was
phenomenal," she said.
Seaforth hospital's plans for seniors'
wellness centre could help caregivers
By Scott Hilgendorff •
Expositor -Editor
A centre for excellence focused on seniors at Seaforth
Community Hospital could coincidentally provide some of
the support Karen Henderson, an advocate for caregivers'
needs, stressed is important at a forum on aging held in
Stratford on Friday.
While the thrust of the centre, tentatively being called a
seniors' wellness centre, is not on caregivers, Mary Cardinal,
clinical leader of the centre at the hospital said it could end up
meeting some of the local needs Henderson stressed
caregivers of someone who is chronically ill, need in a
community.
Cardinal was at the Grey Bruce Huron Perth District Health
Council's forum on rural aging in Stratford where health care
providers and community leaders met to hear speakers about
a variety of topics relating to rural Ontario's aging population.
Henderson spoke about her experiences as a caregiver for
her dying father and explained how there is little support for
adult children who have to care for their parents or spouses
caring for an elderly partner.
While the wellness centre is still in the developing stages,
she said it could include support programs for caregivers.
"The development of the centre for excellence will bring
more resources to our community," Cardinal said. "What is
available at the centre for excellence will be an integral part
of the programs and services already here," she said.
With foot care clinics already available at other businesses
in the community, Cardinal said that's something the centre
wouldn't offer while holdidg osteoporosis clinics instead.
Discussions for the centre also include an indoor pool for
arthritic patients and fitness and physiotherapy programs.
The centre will include senior -focussed programs for in-
patient assessment, outpatient clinics and services and will be
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