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Chattanooga: Caring for the caregiver

By: Emily Bregel
(Contact)

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Amy French

The role of caregiver to a child, a parent or a disabled loved one can be emotionally, physically and financially draining, and too few people know how to get help, advocates say.

“It’s a sadly well-kept secret. We try very hard to get the word out,” said Amy French, a family advocate for the Relative Caregiver Program of the Southeast Tennessee Area Agency on Aging and Disability. The program provides resources and support groups to caregivers raising children who are not theirs by birth.

Ms. French is one of a number of scheduled speakers for the Caring for the Caregiver Conference, which will be held Wednesday through Friday at the Chattanooga Choo-Choo.

The conference will cover the challenges and resources available for a broad range of caregivers, including siblings caring for young children and adults caring for their parents. But the event also aims to foster partnerships among agencies that work with the caregivers and their families, said Dr. Thelma Sanders-Hunter, extension associate professor of family life at Tennessee State University.

Dr. Sanders-Hunter said she organized the first caregiver conference in 2004 as a Rutherford County event that focused on relatives who provided care to young children.

The conference since has grown to include organizers from 14 different states’ extension agencies, she said.

“It is really to raise awareness of where people can seek help and what available to them,” Dr. Sanders-Hunter said.

For elderly people raising young children, a fixed income combined with generational and technology divides make for a challenging situation, Ms. French said.

“Their needs are very different than the needs of traditional foster families, and certainly (different from) traditional families,” she said. “We really want to emphasize how valuable this conference can be, not just for relative caregivers, but for anyone caring for anyone in any capacity.”

Also among the speakers: Hospice of Chattanooga officials will give a presentation on how to make end-of-life care choices, as well as the importance of caring for oneself while caring for a loved one, chief marketing officer Theresa Davis said.

The Chattanooga Brain Injury Association will provide information on support groups and resources for people dealing with a traumatic brain injury and their caregivers, Executive Director Beth Coleman said.

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