Published November 2005

County’s family caregiver
network provides array
of support services

By Kimberly Hilden
SCBJ Assistant Editor

Retirement planning — for most of us, that simply means investing funds now to secure a comfortable life once we’ve left the working world. But John Peterson suggests expanding that definition to include preparing now for the role of family caregiver.

“I put it right up there with financial planning,” said Peterson, a program manager with Snohomish County’s Long-Term Care and Aging Division.

Family care-giving is something that can sneak up on you if you’re not prepared for it, Peterson said.

It can take the form of a parent who has, over time, lost his or her mobility, or in the form of a spouse who has experienced a gradual decline in his or her mental faculties due to Alzheimer’s disease.

“But it’s those sudden things that really catch people off guard,” said Peterson, such as the family member who is involved in a car accident or suffers a life-altering injury in a fall.

Whatever the reason that creates the need for the caregiver dynamic, statistics show that the need is there for those entering or well into retirement.

According to information from the Family Caregiver Alliance, many family caregivers of senior citizens are seniors themselves, with the average age of those caregivers being 63 years old.

And a report by AARP notes that the lifetime probability of becoming disabled in at least two daily-living activities or of being cognitively impaired is 68 percent for those 65 and older.

Knowing where to turn for help and what resources are available — long before the need arises — can help to take the uncertainty out of the care-giving experience, Peterson noted.

In Snohomish County, such resources are coordinated through the county’s Family Caregiver Programs, a community network of programs and services that was developed in 2001 by Long-Term Care and Aging.

“The heart of the Family Caregiver Programs is to provide support to family caregivers that will decrease stress and increase confidence in caring for their loved one,” Peterson said. Without that support, the caregiver can, over time, suffer from depression and feelings of anger and guilt.

Over the past four years, the county has established a number of “consistent deliverables” as part of the Family Caregiver Programs, Peterson said, including a resource phone line, a Web site, educational workshops, a series of self-care classes for the caregiver, support groups, a lending library and a Caregiver Kit.

Packed with everything from a caregiver self-assessment tool and information on adult day health programs to tips to communicating with doctors and protecting oneself against con artists, the Caregiver Kit has been distributed to some 8,000 recipients since its creation in 2002.

Kits are available at any of the senior centers the county contracts with to deliver their services, including the Lynnwood Senior Center, the Greater Mill Creek Senior Program, the Northshore Senior Center, the East County Senior Center, the Stillaguamish Senior Center and the Family Support Center of South Snohomish County.

“Every one of our centers out there is responsible for providing a full menu of support services,” Peterson said. “We have a roving social worker in south county to do support groups, and there is a cadre of trainers spread around the county.”

Another valuable partner in the Family Caregiver Programs is Senior Services of Snohomish County, which operates the Family Caregiver Resource Line as well as hosts the Family Caregiver Web site and provides language-specific resources, Peterson said.

Over time, the programs offered through the caregiver network have evolved to meet the needs of the community, Peterson said.

In south county, for example, a “care buddy” program pairs up volunteer “care buddies” with care receivers for a short period of time, giving the caregiver a respite — and a chance to take a care-giving class or attend a support group.

In north county, work is under way to create a collaborative with the Stillaguamish Senior Center, the Stanwood Senior Center, Josephine Sunset and other groups to leverage the skills and resources of each to better serve the local population, Peterson said.

Also in the works for the coming year is a series of caregiver seminars, or mini-conferences, to be held quarterly in different geographic areas of the county, with each session hosting two speakers, Peterson said.

For more information on the Family Caregiver Programs, call the Family Caregiver Resource Line at 425-290-1240 or 800-422-2024 or go online to www.snocare.org.

Back to the top/November 2005 Main Menu