NEXT CONFERENCE COMING
May 7, 8, & 9, 2024
Connecting Caregivers Conference Agenda
Thanks to our wonderful partners and sponsors
for helping us create this event with no registration fee!
Hosted by
Linda Burhans
The Gal Who Cares for the Caregivers
Tuesday, May 7th, 2024, Day 1
9:00 to 10:00 am EST: Keynote Address: Dr. Cate McCarty
Topic: Dementia Anonymous, Applying the 12 Step Recovery Plan to Life with Dementia
Loving someone who struggles with dementia is difficult. It can make us feel helpless, angry, depressed and lonely. For many of us, it leads to obsessive and controlling behaviors. Dementia Anonymous’s peer-to-peer support offers us a chance to voice our struggles and share our experience, strength and hope. The family disease of dementia is complex, but Dementia Anonymous can help us to change our attitudes and behaviors so we can find serenity, despite the progression of their disease.
Join Dr. Cate as she applies the experience, strength and hope of the 12-step program to the disease of dementia.
-Examine the value of fellowship and peer-to-peer support
-Apply the tenets of the 12 steps to find serenity despite neurodegeneration
-Evaluate the steps and slogans with an eye to what will work for you
Dr. Cate offers perspectives for caregivers to cope and thrive despite the diagnosis, often through a novel lens not looked at previously.
10:00 to 11:00 am EST: Elli Baldwin & Lisa Keith
Topic: The Caregiver Life Jacket: Tools to Avoid Burnout
1. How/Why to implement a Gratitude practice
2. Simple planning questions to avoid stress/overthinking
3. How to identify your needs and ask for help
11:00 to 12:00 pm EST: Dr John Huy
Topic: How to Find Total Health
12:00 to 12:20 pm EST: AE Corner – Adaptive Equipment
Topic: Each day they will show one of their pieces of equipment.
1:00 to 2:00 pm EST: Sheri Gruden
Topic: The Tale of 2 PACE Families
This is a brief on how our Program All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) helps seniors age in place. I will be sharing with you two families, their struggles and how PACE makes them family. We can have Q&A and let you know how to reach us for help.
2:00 to 3:00 pm EST: Michelle Lowack
Topic: When Is It Time to Find Senior Living Options
Your loved one likely wishes to continue aging at home. However, there may come a point when that’s no longer realistic.
Assisted living is an excellent option for keeping older adults safe, social, and mentally and physically healthy. The question is, how do you know when your parent needs the support assisted living provides?
When is it time for assisted living?
The rule of thumb is sooner rather than later. It’s time for assisted living when providing care at home no longer seems feasible.
Each senior is unique and may not display clear signs that it’s time for a higher level of care. When determining whether to explore a transition to senior living, consider your loved one’s daily schedule, health status, functional abilities, current and future care needs, and quality of life.
Wednesday, May 8th, 2024, Day 2
Topic: Is It Legal? Medicaid Now and in the Future
Why you should start the conversation about Medicaid now versus waiting until you need it. You may not know you need it, however, do you know what a nursing home costs? There are solutions.
10:00 to 11:00 am EST: Lizette Cloete
Topic: How To Decrease Your Stress As A Dementia Caregiver Through Coaching
At the “Dementia Caregiving for Families” Podcast, Lizette Cloete, seasoned dementia coach and pastor’s wife has been discussing how to make your dementia caregiving journey less stressful, reduce your risk for burnout and how to redeem your time as a Christian family coping with dementia.
We’ve been interviewing the most uplifting and positive family caregivers or professional resources in the caregiving space to bring you the best information to ease your journey.
And then we compiled some of our all-time favorites into this FREE must-listen binge-able playlist, aimed at empowering Christian family caregivers of people with dementia to reach their highest potential as caregivers so you can Glorify God and enjoy him forever, despite a dementia diagnosis.
We share Biblical principles, practical caregiving strategies, and secrets to living much happier/healthier/less stressed caregiving lives–
All without compromising what’s really important (like our Christian values, family time, and our own health or relationships).
🌟 Feeling overwhelmed by caregiving expectations?
🌟 Wrestling with stress & burnout?
🌟 Need “real talk” about transforming your caregiving journey from reactive to proactive?
🌟 Looking for caregiving from a Biblical perspective, but want proven strategies that work?
If so, we’ve got you covered.
These hand-picked episodes help “clear your fog” while illuminating your path to joy, fulfillment, and success as a caregiver:
🎧 What are Challenging Behaviors?
🎧 Therapeutic Lying? Is This Good or Bad?
🎧 Are You Stressed By Dementia Caregiving?
🎧 How A Caregiver Can Remain Well During Dementia Care
🎧 How One Caregiver Managed 3 Dementia’s At Once
If you’re tired of the same old, same old negative dementia narrative, we encourage you to listen in as we explore new perspectives and insights so you can honor God in your dementia caregiving journey…
All the while tapping into a Biblical worldview of dementia caregiving, and using evidence based practices to decrease caregiver stress, reduce burnout so you can redeem your time!
11:00 to 12:00 pm EST: Ryan Herd
Topic: Smart Technology for Living in Place
Do you have a loved one living on their own? Are you concerned about their well-being? Are you worried about falls or worse? Today technology can help! In this presentation, Ryan will take you through some of the technology that can help your loved one live a long and independent life all while giving you more Peace of Mind!
12:00 to 12:20 pm EST: AE Corner – Adaptive Equipment
Topic: Each day they will show one of their pieces of equipment.
1:00 to 2:00 pm EST: Arlene Grosso & Lori Collins
Topic: Finding the Why in Fall Prevention
Finding out why a person has fallen is the best way to prevent the next fall. If you fall and do not figure out why you fell you have a 40% chance of falling within the next week. This fall may be the fall that cannot be recovered from. We will give you a checklist of things to look for to prevent the next fall with many stories of how to modify your environment with simple changes and to see new products and ideas you can install to prevent the next fall. Falls are Preventable when you find out the Why.
Thursday, May 9th, 2024, Day 3
Topic: Help! Caring for Yourself While Caring for Others
This presentation centers on caregiver burnout and fatigue – what can cause it, who’s more susceptible, how it can present, and how to reduce it. Oftentimes, caregivers wait too long to use Hospice services, so we will cover how Hospice can reduce caregiver burnout as well.
10:00 to 11:00 am EST: Debbie Selsavage
Topic: How to Take Care of Yourself while Grieving!
Grief can affect your ability to think, remember, and process information. Symptoms of grief can happen anytime. People say that they are in a “mental fog” in the early days and weeks of grief.
Finding ways to take care of yourself provides hope and healing. Grief can make it hard to do even simple things. You may find it difficult to take care of yourself during grief. But self-care can help you get through trying days. This process can be even more difficult while being a care partner for someone else living with dementia. Finding help, support and a balance it can be done.
11:00 to 12:00 pm EST: Dr Brittany Lamb
Topic: How to Avoid the Top 3 “Mistakes” as a Medical Decision Maker for Your Person Living with Dementia
Most decision makers are affected time after time along the journey by more than one of these “mistakes.”
Learning to avoid them is a way to prevent stress and uncertainty when making any medical decision – in or outside of the hospital, quality of life impacting or not.
I’ll break down what you need to know on a practical level to avoid them, recommending 2 “must do” action steps and 1 “must have” discussion.
Avoiding these mistakes is a path towards feeling both confident and at peace with the medical decisions you will make on behalf of your person living with dementia.
12:00 to 12:20 pm EST: AE Corner – Adaptive Equipment
Topic: Each day they will show one of their pieces of equipment.
1:00 to 2:00 pm EST: Jen Moyer & Jim Bowles
Topic: You Have The Power Within You – Discover the Power of Neuro Technology
It is my mission to keep our seniors active and mobile. Through sharing my story, giving the hard facts on fall statistics and introducing the newest in Fall Prevention Technology, my goal is to reduce Senior Falls and therefore, providing seniors a better quality of life.
Don’t regret falling, prevent falling!
Join me to learn:
Current Fall statistics
Warning signs that you are a risk of a fall
How exercise can prevent falls
The Newest advances in Technology for fall prevention
How to reduce your risk of falling 8 times