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Dear Mosaic Miami Leadership:
By way of this email, I hope to put the following event on your radar. I also wanted to let you know that Imam Samra is receiving the clergy of the year award, so I assume a few of our dialogue colleagues may want to come. This year, our program is considering the issue of caregiving.
Mindfully Navigating the Caregiving Journey: Caring for Others as We Care for Ourselves
Caregiving can be a bridge to a meaningful relationship with another and may also prove to be an emotional and psychological burden. Caregivers can range from family members to aids, who may have little to no reprieve when caring for older adults. Caregiving is an issue which is significant not to just many individuals within our community, but society itself.
Approximately 43.5 million caregivers have provided unpaid care to an adult or child in the last twelve months. 58% of caregivers are women and 20% of caregivers are sixty-five or older. 37% care for a parent or parent-in-law, and 10% provide care to someone with Dementia. The time commitment is significant: 50% of caregivers have provided care for at least two years and 30% for at least twenty hours per week. One in six non-caregivers expect to become caregivers within two years. (Center for Disease Control Caregiving Factsheet, CDC Caregiving Data Factsheet (apa.org)). Thus, the challenges of caregiving require us as a society to consider ways to improve the quality of life and support those engaged in this sacred obligation.
We will examine mindfulness techniques and self-care strategies for the caregiver, as well as provide resources to those to whom we provide care. While all forms of caregiving will be considered, special attention will be given to both the opportunities for connection and challenges for those caring for those with dementia and Alzheimer’s. We will hear personal testimonials of those who have reflected on their caregiving journey.
In addition, we will frame the act of caregiving as a pathway to the creation of a more compassionate and interdependent society. We will mine our spiritual and religious traditions to formulate an ethic of caregiving that affirms the inherent dignity of every human being, fashioned in the image of the Divine.
Our keynote speaker, Nancy Kriseman will offer groundbreaking ideas for caregivers to ease into their caregiving journey, through mindfulness techniques and self-care practices. As a licensed clinical social worker, Ms. Nancy Kriseman will help outline the tools and resources one needs to fulfill their role as a caregiver while balancing the other responsibilities in their lives.
Nancy will be joined by Helene Berger, who will share a personal journey. She is the author of Choosing Joy: Alzheimer’s: A Book of Hope and was inspired by the unanticipated, positive results that her husband Ady achieved after his initial diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. Helene is a longtime Miamian, having served and chaired local Jewish communal boards including the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, as well as played leadership roles with the Joint Distribution Committee and the Jewish Federations of North America.
There will be continuing education credits for mental health professionals, nurses, and legal guardians. Continental breakfast and lunch will be served.
I encourage you to join us. I hope that it will not only help those we serve but help ourselves as well. We are not only in the caring business, but we need to be cared for as well.
With blessings,
Fred
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