A six-week workshop designed for the family caregiver.
Classes are for a caregiver or their care recipient, age 60 and older.

Join us to learn: 

• Tips to reduce stress
• Improve self-confidence
• Caregiver/recipient communication
• Making tough decisions
• Navigating family dynamics
• Resources for your specific needs

Classes run every Monday for 6 consecutive weeks, April 28-June 9, no class on Memorial Day
Time: 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm
REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED REGISTER HERE

Powerful Tools for Caregivers Weekly Class Descriptions

Powerful Tools Workshops are held once a week for 6 consecutive weeks. Please note that each weekly class builds on the next class. Your registration is for the entire 6-week series. The workshop and all materials are supplied at no cost. New workshops are announced monthly, and we offer both online and in-person formats.

Week #1: Take Care of You
This class sets the stage for the entire course. It emphasizes that the focus is on “YOU, the caregiver, not on the family member receiving care,” and that caregivers will develop a “box of self-care tools.” The challenge of caregiving and significance of caregiver self-care are dramatized through video. Beginning in this class, caregivers make a weekly action plan for self-care.

Week #2: Identifying and Reducing Personal Stress
Four steps are presented for effective stress management: (1) Identifying early warning signs, (2) Identifying personal sources of stress, (3) Changing what you can change and accepting what you cannot change, and (4) Taking action. Tools to reduce stress are discussed. Participants learn how to change negative self-talk which increases stress and erodes confidence—to positive self-talk. Beginning in this class, caregivers learn f ive relaxation activities that are easy to incorporate into their daily lives.

Week #3: Communicating Feelings, Needs, and Concerns
Participants learn how to communicate their feelings, needs and concerns more effectively by using “I” messages. Through brief dramatizations, participants experience the impact of both “I” messages and “You” messages (which tend to sound blaming and put people on the defensive). They practice changing “You” messages to “I” messages, and identifying when statements beginning with the word “I” are actually “Hidden You” messages.

Week #4: Communicating in Challenging Situations
Participants practice two communication tools—assertiveness and Aikido—which are helpful in difficult situations. They learn a four-step process, called DESC (Describe, Express, Specify, and Consequences) for using the assertive style of communication. With Aikido, participants learn how to align and find “common ground” with a person who is distressed. A segment highlights guidelines for communicating with a person who is memory-impaired.

Week #5: Learning From Our Emotions
The overriding theme of this class is “our emotions are messages we need to listen to”. It emphasizes that feelings occur for a reason and that feelings are neither good nor bad. Focus is on identifying constructive ways for dealing with difficult feelings—especially anger, guilt, and depression—and resources for professional help.

Week #6: Mastering Caregiving Decisions
Focus is on the internal emotional process caregivers go through when they experience a life change. Tools for dealing with changes and for making tough decisions—including a seven-step decision-making model and the family meeting– are discussed.

REGISTER HERE

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