Help for Caregivers

(Care)giving and Taking: Making time for you Moderated by Lynn Breuer, JFS Caregiving PanelHelp for featuring Becky Eizen, JFS A four-part series to educate, empower, and connect family caregivers Barbra Giles, JSL Norman E. Richards, Esq.

Taking care of a loved one can be difficult. So can ensuring that your own needs are being met during this challenging time. It’s easy to feel isolated but Jewish Family Service and Jewish Senior Life Robin Hamilton-Morris, AAA 1-B January 13 JFS/JSL o ers joint caregiver series beginning in January. are here to offer family caregivers support, comfort and a sense of community. DANNY SCHWARTZ STAFF WRITER

Jewish Family Service (JFS) of Metro Detroit and Jewish Senior Life (JSL) are teaming up for a new four-part family caregiver series.

The name of the program is (Care)giving and Taking: Making Time for You, a fourpart series to educate, empower and connect family caregivers. Taking place over Zoom, the series will run the second Thursday of every month at 2 p.m. Jan. 13, Feb. 10, March 10 and April 14.

The kickoff event on Jan. 13 is a panel with five speakers, Lynn Breuer and Becky Eizen from JFS, Barbara Giles from JSL, estate planning attorney Norman E. Richards and caregiver resource specialist Robin Hamilton-Morris, touching on their areas of expertise including caregiving, senior housing options, connecting with resources and estate planning.

The guest on Feb. 10 is Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg from Kids Kicking Cancer, focusing on self-care tactics with a program called Breath Brake, leading the group through an exercise.

On March 10, the guest is Rabbi Laura Geller, author of Getting Good at Getting Older, who will be focusing on the caregiving aspect.

The guest on April 14 is Dr. Micky Golden Moore for “It’s Okay Not to Be Okay,” focusing on the uniqueness of how we experience grief and loss.

After those four months, program organizers Missy Lewin of JFS and Tracey Proghovnick of JSL will conduct a follow-up survey to assess what else the population might need.

“As sister agencies, we partner regularly, and we thought working together we could really reach a large audience,” Proghovnick says. “Having this support, knowing there are resources out there and having really great speakers lined up to encourage, support, validate and connect is something we’re thrilled to be able to do.”

Even while being exacerbated by COVID, Lewin believes the need for support for family caregivers has always been there.

“I think some of us become caregivers and have never been a caregiver before,” Lewin says. “And we don’t have those tools in our back pocket to be able to manage the caregiving piece and to be able to manage ourselves as well and make sure we can balance both lives.”

There will also be a focus on those who have experienced trauma, how to care for those who may have experienced it and for the family caregiver who may have experienced it.

“We know, during COVID, everyone’s experienced some type of trauma, so that’s not just specific populations anymore; it’s everyone,” Lewin says.

Those attending the series don’t have to be Jewish, everyone is welcome, and it’s free.

Lewin and Proghovnick hope the series provides tools and resources to help people move forward in their family caregiver roles, and to let them know they’re not alone.

“There’s something about when you know you’re not

Join us for our four-part series heldvirtually on Thursdays at 2pm:

Moderated by Lynn Breuer, JFS Take a Taking Care of featuring Becky Eizen, JFS Barbra Giles, JSL Norman E. Richards, Esq. Robin Hamilton-Morris, AAA 1-B January 13 Breath Brake with Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg February 10 the Caregivers Author Rabbi Laura Geller March 10 alone, there’s comfort in that,” Lewin says. “So it’s about how To learn more or to register visit jfsdetroit.org/caregiver we can make sure we’re bringing that to people because being a family caregiver is one of the hardest places to be in, and sometimes we don’t sign up for

Taking Care of that.” The program was made pos-It’s Okay Not the Caregivers sible through grant funds from the Jewish Federations of North to Be Okay

Author Rabbi Laura Geller America Center on Aging and Trauma. Dr. Micky Golden Moore March 10 To sign up and/or learn more, visit April 14 www.jfsdetroit.org/caregiver.