Are you ready for your caregiving journey?
Statistics show that only about 5% of families have taken the necessary steps to develop a fully thought-out care plan for their aging loved ones - it may be your parents, or your grandparents. Or your spouse or partner. Or a favorite aunt or uncle. Or even a close friend. For the vast majority, it takes a “trigger event” (a fall or diagnosis of illness such as cancer, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s or dementia, etc.) to force everyone to spring into action.
In the best case, the average time for making decisions about assisted living (or in-home help) is 2~3 months, forcing serious decisions to be made under great duress.
AMI founder Debbie Howard's purpose with The Caregiving Journey is to help you to:
- Plan and prepare better - and more in advance - so you have more options when the going gets tough
- Take better care of yourself while you are caregiving
- Inspire your options with “relaunching” your own life once caregiving is done
Large-scale research conducted in 2020 by AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC) shows that:
- Just over 53 million American adults (average age 50, and primarily female) have served as unpaid caregivers in the past year for someone aged 50 or older (either a relative, parent or parent-in-law)
- Nearly half of these 50+ caregivers did not have a choice in taking on their caregiving roles
- They have been in their roles for an average of 3.7 years
For better ease and grace in caregiving ...
The need is compelling: for better preparation before a trigger event occurs, for better “self-care” by the caregiver during caregiving, and for better recovery and relaunching of one’s own life after caregiving is done.
Aging Matters International works on these fronts with both companies and individuals.
This is personal...
Launching Aging Matters International (AMI) and TheCaregivingJouney.com was a very personal “Act II” for Debbie Howard, who served as the live-in caregiver for her mom following her mom’s diagnosis with lung cancer back in 2007.
Since then, it’s been Debbie’s dream to draw on that experience, married with her 40+ years as a market strategist, communications professional, and entrepreneur to provide information, guidance, and inspiration to companies and individuals as they navigate their own caregiving journeys.
For individuals, this website (https://www.thecaregivingjourney.com) provides complimentary resources for individuals (regular newsletter and blog, tips library, AMI Caregiver Resources Guide, AMI Planning Checklist, and private FaceBook group).
For companies, this website (https://www.thecaregivingcrisis.com) provides perspectives for moving forward, along with complimentary "how-to" resources for businesses (i.e., AMI Idea Generator Worksheets: Programs Repurposing and Augmentation, Caregiver-related KPIs, Leveraging Employee Surveys, Employee Touchpoints, Leadership Opportunities).