When you are the primary caregiver or you are responsible for your loved ones well-being, personal support is essential. We help you find that support and to learn what you can do for yourself, as well as for your loved one.
Along with various guest speakers on such subjects as elder law, managing medicines, and dementia, we offer an opportunity to share cares, concerns, and emotions such as frustration, anger, and guilt with others who are coping with the same problems.
If your loved one is living independently or with any kind of assistance; if your loved one is in or near Fayetteville or lives hundreds of miles away; whatever your circumstances, we can help you to learn about resources which will aid both of you.
Need Survival Tips?
We can help you to:
• Trust in the Lord
• Be positive
• Plan ahead
• Move forward
• Reduce personal stress
• Set goals
• Find solutions
• Ask for and accept help
• Get support
• Renew yourself
• Cope with your emotions
Do You Need to Attend?
If you are someone who has “been there, done that” and have learned how to cope, or at least be at ease, please come and share. You can be support and comfort to those who are only beginning to face the issues.
Perhaps your loved ones are still active physically and mentally, but are in their 70s. Then this group is for you as well. In some instances, the aging process can occur so slowly that you are almost unaware of its onset. In other cases, the process can develop very suddenly and unexpectedly.
COAP is here as support for one another. We do not have all the answers, but we can address situations and share what has helped us. You may have your own caregiver, or you may need one. We will become caregivers for each other.
God is with us, but He also gives us one another as His agents for love and support.
The Caregiver’s Bill of Rights (Paraphrased)
Caregivers have the right to:
• take care of themselves and know it’s not selfish to do so;
• enlist the care of others in the caregiving, even over the objection of any family member;
• maintain facets of their own lives that do not include the person being cared for;
• have feelings of anger or sadness, and express them occasionally;
• refuse to be manipulated consciously or unconsciously;
• be treated with consideration, affection, acceptance, and be forgiven for shortcomings;
• take pride in their own individuality and what they are accomplishing;
• be applauded for the courage it takes to meet the needs of the person being cared for.
For Information contact Janice Luce at First Presbyterian Church (910) 483-0121.
