caregiving

Table of Content

• Caregiving Organizations
• Specialized Support
• Planning Guides & Tools

Caregiving Organizations

AgingCare

A website to support families. The site has an active online forum where caregivers can share their experience and learn from others by asking questions, giving answers, or participating in a group discussion.

Caregiver Action Network

CAN (the National Family Caregivers Association) provides articles, videos, and peer support to family caregivers across the country free of charge. They cover a broad range of topics from practicalities such as medication and nutrition management, to caregiver self-care to navigation of the medical system.

Family Caregiver Alliance

This non-profit’s mission is to improve the quality of life for caregivers and the people who receive their care. Their website has an online learning center and links to many other resources such as in-person support groups.

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Specialized Support

Alzheimer’s Association

For those caring for loved ones with Alzheimer’s, this website has clear and easy to access information on practical and emotional elements of caregiving.

American Cancer Society

The caregiver page of the website has an interactive caregiver resource guide, articles, and videos on cancer-related caregiver topics, online communities, and links to other support groups. 

Companioa from the Institute on Aging

A paid-for service, to support caregivers of loved ones with dementia. This service pairs you with a personal “Care Coach”, a trained dementia expert. The Care Coach helps assess your loved one’s needs, map out a care plan and meet with you bi-monthly to discuss the plan and your needs.

George Mark Children’s House

Life-affirming care and comfort for children with illnesses and their families.

Imerman Angels

Imerman Angels support cancer fighters, survivors, previvors and caregivers by matching them with a “Mentor Angel” – a cancer survivor or caregiver who has faced the same type of cancer and who can answer questions and provide one-to-one support.

Lorenzo’s House

Lorenzo’s House focuses on younger-onset dementia and revolutionize care in an industry where existing practices need profound reimagining.

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Planning Guides & Tools

A List to Reduce Work for Your Next-Of-Kin

This useful list and accompanying templates were kindly shared with us by Donna Woodward, a Hospice Volunteer and Dementia-care Volunteer. They will be particularly useful for friends or family in a caring role.

AARP Local Caregiver Resource Guides

AARP has put together local resource guides showing what support is available for family caregivers in different states and different cities.

How Do I Start My Advance Care Planning

A list of links to guides and toolkits for creating your Advance Care Directives.

Next Step In Care

Next Step In Care provides written guides and videos for family caregivers that help them through any medical treatment – from visiting the family doctor, trips to ER, hospitalization and discharge and Homecare.

This interview between Mary Doane and Aisha Adkins from Caring Across Generation discusses what it’s like to be at the intersection of caregiving and young adulthood and managing your own future while caring for your loved one in the present. This interview was recorded on November 3, 2022.

Drawing from her own experience as a Sandwich Generation Caregiver, Mary Doane shares how the use of mindfulness, compassion, and clear boundaries can shift how you feel about your role, how you act within it and how you care for yourself in addition to others. This session ran on April 27, 2022.

Community Forward SF is a non-profit that works with and supports the most vulnerable and underserved communities in San Francisco: adults and older adults, who are or have been chronically homeless, those who are dually or triply diagnosed, those with chronic medical conditions, substance abuse issues and mental health needs and those who are BIPOC, LGBTIQQ. Community Forward SF offers medical, emergency, and transitional shelter, supportive housing, and a large array of wrap-around services such as mental health services, case management, substance abuse treatment, and domestic violence support to meet clients where they are at when they access the service.

The nature of the work they do results in front-line and clinical staff at Community Forward SF witnessing loss, suffering, and distress on a daily basis which can lead to emotional strain, empathy fatigue, or overwhelm. This strain on the staff has only increased since the pandemic. 

In response, Community Forward SF is partnering with ZCP who will deliver four monthly sessions to Community Forward SF’s clinical staff. These sessions will cover the role of mindfulness in exploring and regulating emotions, compassion for yourself and others in a caregiving role, the role of loss in caregiving, and how to approach maintaining healthy boundaries. 

Suzanne Adams, PhD, the Vice President of Clinical Services at Community Forward SF explained why she approached ZCP to support her staff: 

“Mindfulness is an integral part of a cultural shift I hope to impart on not only for our clients’ wellbeing but for our clinical team, as well. Our clinical staff manage the demands of difficult jobs–feelings of activation, coping with vicarious trauma, and issues of burnout–while also being called to address the essential need of self-care. I reached out to Zen Caregiving to provide the education, resources, and emotional support to my team that can help them in all areas of their experience.”

Sessions will begin in January 2022 and will run until April 2022. 

If you are interested in how ZCP can support you and your team, please contact sarah@zencaregiving.org to learn more.

If you like what you read, please join us and enroll in one of our courses, share our work with someone you think will benefit from it, or support us through a donation.