November is National Family Caregivers Month. It’s exciting each year to see more recognition and support for family caregivers from companies in our neighborhoods and the brands we’ve known for years.
According to AARP, there are currently more than 43 million people across the U.S. who are caring for aging parents, ill partners or other loved ones with disabilities (as of 2015). Having a month to focus on these unsung everyday heroes helps raise awareness to the challenges family caregivers face and increases the support these individuals receive.
Each year the Caregiver Action Network (CAN) picks a theme. For 2019, the theme is #BeCareCurious. Their primary intention for this curiosity theme was for family caregivers to “encourage family caregivers across the country to ask questions, explore options and share in the care decisions that affect the health and well-being of their loved ones.”
Happy Healthy Caregiver’s interpretation of this theme is for our readers and podcast listeners to be curious about the companies whose products and resources are out there to help family caregivers.
We’re delighted to launch the Happy Healthy Caregiver Partner Spotlight program this month to better help companies connect with the family caregivers who need to know about them.
Announcing the Partner Spotlight Program
Our new Partner Spotlight program showcases three defined levels as well as a custom package option. We call each of our partner levels Care Champions, Care Advocates, and Care Partners.
All levels include a prominent logo and link featured on our Partner Spotlight page for one year and a public thank you on at least two social channels. A portion of all partner payments provide a donation to the Happy Healthy Caregiver respite fund. This respite fund is similar to a pastor’s discretionary fund. We often meet caregivers who are burned out and have no financial means for respite. These respite gifts will be used to provide a few extra helping hands.
Our Care Champion and Care Partner levels also include additional benefits related to social engagement posts, sponsored blog posts, podcast advertisements, and email newsletter ads.
Companies and entrepreneurs are recognizing that caregivers are special people and need help. We are grateful to announce our inaugural partners who are doing amazing things to help family caregivers. We appreciate and happily shine the Partner Spotlight on them.
Care Champions
Happy Healthy Caregiver would be delighted to highlight your company at our highest partner level – Care Champion. Contact us to learn more about the win/win benefits of becoming a spotlighted partner.
Care Advocates
With brands like Depend® Cottonelle® and Poise®, Kimberly-Clark provides caregivers with high-quality products. All year around, and especially during National Caregiver Month, Kimberly-Clark aims to provide caregivers their trusted essentials.
With National Family Caregivers month here, the time is opportune to showcase robots and technologies that bring time- and cost-efficient solutions to family caregivers who are looking for ways to facilitate their roles and spend more quality time with their aging loved ones.
Enter Pria by BLACK+DECKER, a new automated medication management system and home health care device by Stanley Healthcare. With a mission to empower loved ones who desire to maintain independence while staying connected to their families, Pria leverages a HIPAA-compliant platform with a voice-enabled tabletop robot to provide caregivers day-to-day insight into their loved one’s adherence to both prescribed and over-the-counter medication therapy and wellbeing through a mobile application.
As you know…
- About three in five caregivers(24 million people) have a paying job in addition to their caregiving responsibilities.
- More than half of family caregivers are left with no other solution than to take time off from work, reduce hours at work, or quit their jobs altogether to manage their caregiving responsibilities. This can lead to diminished chances for promotions, less job security, fewer employment benefits, reduced money set aside for their own retirements and lower Social Security benefits when the time comes. On top of this, family caregivers absorb costly expenses, such as traveling and employing home health aides.
Pria helps to solve these problems and more by facilitating in-home healthcare management, such as scheduling up to 28 medication doses, providing reminder alerts, dispensing medication at the scheduled time, and providing the user with fast access to family or caregivers with a simple voice command and built-in camera for two-way video calls. It limits interference with a caregiver’s work schedule and lessens costly expenses that otherwise are incurred by the caregiver. Equally as important, Pria allows caregivers to spend more quality time with their aging loved ones instead of continuously reminding them about taking their pills.
Care Partners
Beth Marshall of Grief Survivor is a freelance journalist, speaker and author of Grief Survivor-28 steps toward hope and healing. After losing several close family members, she discovered that journaling, self-care and preserving stories were important steps toward healing. Her writing and speaking help people find joy-filled life again after loss.
The mission of Comforting Arms is for clients and family members to fall in love with the future. Comforting Arms sends compassionate caregivers to people’s home to help with such activities as meal planning and preparation, medication management, light housekeeping, respite for family members and assistance with personal care such as bathing. Comforting Arms also offers hands-on training for family members who are caring for a loved one at home. This training helps ensure the care receiver and the caregiver are both safe.
CaringBoost is a personal online library that features dozens of easy-to-follow lessons from medical professionals, all in one place, covering the most important topics caregivers can face, in all, 30+ lessons featuring 100+ expert videos, as well as practical explanations, illustrations, downloadable guides and instructions all written by experts for anyone. For each topic, caregivers will learn what they need to know, what they need to do, keys to safety, what to tell a doctor and more. It’s lasting peace of mind accessed at any time on your desktop, tablet and smartphone with easy navigation that people love and with important lessons for all types of family caregivers – from those helping with a recovery after a surgery or medical event to those providing long-term care for a loved one with chronic conditions or advanced aging. 55% of family caregivers report sometimes being overwhelmed with the many tasks they face; CaringBoost is meant to be a simple way that can help immediately and that has been described as like having a nurse at your side 24/7 explaining key information in a way that gives you the knowledge and confidence you need at any step of the care journey.
Daughterhood.org’s mission is to support and build confidence in women who are managing their parents’ care. The daughterhood blog, website and social media links connect you — the care manager — to resources and a wholly unique perspective on our health and elder care systems. Daughterhood Circles are communities that gather on a semi-regular face-to-face basis and emphasize camaraderie. Happy Healthy Caregiver founder, Elizabeth Miller, is the Daughterhood Circle leader for the NW Atlanta Circle.
The Whole Care Network™ is a multi-media, multi-channel platform for caregivers to locate and share trusted resources. The network provides a place where caregivers can take comfort and refuge through real-life stories while being personally validated in their caregiving journey by those who understand. Our platform consists of audio, video and written word through podcasts, live (video) events and blog posts. The Happy Healthy Caregiver podcast is grateful to be a part of the Whole Care Network.
AlzAuthors.com is a community of over 200 authors sharing Alzheimer’s and dementia stories to light the way for others. Each AlzAuthor writes words that serve as caregiver handbook, guide through the disease process, or a catalyst for much needed conversation.
