MEOC's Caregivers' Album of Thoughts and Thanks

Mountain Empire Older Citizens, Inc. (MEOC) has served the residents of far southwest Virginia since 1974 and operates as the region's area agency on aging, public and specialized transportation entity and Children's Advocacy Center.

MEOC's mission statement includes a strong emphasis on supporting family caregivers. MEOC's services for caregivers have received national recognition from the National Council on Aging and The MetLife Foundation/National Alliance For Family Caregiving and include: in home respite, 10 community group respite centers, emergency and overnight respite, adult day health care, caregiver support groups including an online support group, caregiver training and education, caregiver resource library, transportation, homemaker services, personal care services, home-delivered meals, personal emergency response service, care coordination, public advocacy on caregiver issues and a special technology project in which teenagers learn how to teach Alzheimer's caregivers to use the Internet to assist them in their caregiving.

In the early fall of 2007, MEOC's Director of Family Support Services, Julia Trivett Dillon, acted upon a long time idea of MEOC to put together a collection of photographs showcasing area family caregivers and their loved ones served by MEOC. Her interest had been rekindled when she was participating in a meeting of The Virginia Caregiver's Coalition and learned that the Adult Day Care Center of Central Virginia had done a photography project with their participants.

Julia enlisted the assistance of MEOC's Director of Administrative Services, Ray Moore, a very talented amateur photographer. Together they made arrangements with 12 families who had agreed to participate in the project. Photographs, all in color, were made at a variety of locations, dependent on the wishes of the caregiver. Some were made in the home, some were made at adult day health care and community group respite centers, while others were made in favorite outdoor locales. The caregivers participating were from Lee, Wise, Scott Counties and the City of Norton. Their loved ones received a variety of community based services from MEOC. Some caregivers requested that the photograph include MEOC's in-home worker saying that the relationship between the geriatric aide and the care recipient was so close that it seemed more like the aide was a family member.

Each caregiver received a framed copy of his/her photograph. Each caregiver was asked to write a statement in response to the question: "What has the caregiving experience meant to you?" The statements were featured next to the appropriate photographs.

MEOC unveiled the photographs for the first time at its 18th Annual Alzheimer's Seminar in November as part of its local efforts to recognize National Family Caregivers Month and National Alzheimer's Disease Awareness Month. The photo display has also been featured at the various libraries in The Lonesome Pine Regional Library System and at The Oxbow Health and Human Services Center in St. Paul.

We invite everyone to review and share this album.

All photographs are courtesy of Ray Moore.

Rating:
Tags:
Views: 17

Share