Helping older adults and their caregivers age well at home.
Homemaking:
Indoor light housekeeping includes:
- laundry services
- floor care kitchen/bathroom cleaning
- light “fit it” services (changing light bulbs, smoke detector batteries)
- menu planning
- meal prep
Let us walk beside you as you manage and live your life while caring for another person. You will develop you own caregiver support plan and connect with resources in the community
Caregiver Clubs:
Come and share your story with others in a professionally facilitated, safe, confidential environment. Share concerns and feelings regarding your role as caregiver and learn from others. You can find our online Caregiver Club at Family Pathways’ Caregiver Club (Facebook.)
Education and Information:
- Caregiver Essentials
- Connect for Well-Being
- Dementia Friends
- Dementia Friendly at Work
- Dementia Education – Diagnosis and Next Steps
- and many referrals and connections to other area services.
Our volunteers offer “sunshine calls” to isolated older persons to ensure continued well-being of the individual and to provide social contact. Aging Solos receive phone calls over four weeks from volunteers trained in empathy, communication and responding to concerns, can continue longer if service is wanted.
- The volunteers work with each aging solo to better understand the individual needs and customize the number of calls per week, typically between 2 and 4.
- During these calls, volunteers let the client guide the conversation with topics, like gardening or new recipes, that they want to talk about.
- After four weeks, participants are given the option to continue receiving one check-in call per week
These calls are a source of connection for both the older adults and the volunteers.
Family Pathways Aging Services program is dedicated to enhancing our community’s knowledge and understanding of issues facing aging adults and their caregivers. Our current education offerings include:
- Dementia Friends
This one hour education session is perfect for anyone who knows someone living with dementia, or for those who wish to better understand dementia and those it impacts. Presented by Collette Collucci, Aging Coordinator and Community Educator, this class will teach you the difference between dementia and normal aging, how to better communicate with someone diagnosed with a dementia, and leave you with 5 key takeaway messages. For more information on this global movement that is changing the way people think, act, and talk about dementia, visit DementiaFriendsUSA.org. To schedule a session or join a class, email [email protected]Collette also offers Dementia Friends for Families, Youth Dementia Friends, and Dementia Friendly at Work classes. - Caregiver Essentials
An educational program designed to assist family caregivers. This class will help you to understand the complexities of caring for an older adult, the impact of providing and receiving care, identify strategies to help create balance in your life, and become aware of community resources. - Connect for Well-Being
Connect for Well-Being is a way for you to build connections with others and get tips for living a healthy life. Each week will be focused on a different topic to help you on your journey to better health. This class is helpful for caregivers of those living with Dementia. - Book Club – “Finding Life in the Land of Alzheimer’s” by Lauren Kessler
This book club will meet to discuss Lauren Kessler’s book about her desire to learn more about the disease and to atone for her failures in caring for her own Alzheimer’s-stricken mother, leading her to work as a caregiver. “There are many moments of grace and humor and deep compassion in Finding Life in the Land of Alzheimer’s. There are also moments of frustration, pain, loss, delusion, fear, and exhaustion, and these are rendered as honestly and carefully as are the experiences of joy and connection. Kessler gives us the whole picture of Alzheimer’s, shattering any number of myths—about those who have the disease, their families, and those who care for them at facilities like Maplewood—along the way and replacing those misconceptions with all the depth, immediacy, and wisdom of lived experience.”The book club’s meeting times and locations will be determined based on the preferences of book club members.
If you, your family, or your organization is interested in participating in or hosting one of these sessions, contact [email protected]
Upcoming education sessions can be found here.
These Family Pathways Aging Services programs are sponsored, in part, by a 2022 MBA Dementia Grant from the Minnesota Department of Human Services and under the Federal Older Americans Act through a contract from Central Minnesota Council on Aging under an Area Plan approved by the Minnesota Board on Aging. Further support comes from local donors, cost share participants, and Family Pathways Thrift Store revenue.
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Jackie DeFoe
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Leneesha Helen Columbus
Leneesha LaDell Columbus
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Miyona Zayla Miller
