The ground-breaking help being offered at the Edel Caregiver Institute is featured in an article in the April 1^st issue of  Catholic Health World, official newspaper of the Catholic Health Association of the United States. Reporter Betsy Taylor interviewed Dutch Island resident Cinda Baker about the hands-on class she attended to learn skills to help care for her aging mother.  Ms Taylor writes, “more than 42 million family caregivers nationwide provide unpaid care for aging loved ones each year, so that the person they’re caring for can live at home.”  Her article explains the help available through the classes offered at the Institute, a program of not-for-profit Hospice Savannah, Inc., located at 6000 Business Center Drive in Savannah.

The article highlights the four-hour, hands-on Family Caregiving course. Sessions cover Practical Caregiver Skills (learning to safely assist with or perform personal care, manage medications, the basics of infection control and wound care); The Financial Costs of Caregiving (learning about  helpful community resources and how to  qualify for in-home assistance); Long Term Plans (looking to the future and how to pay for long term care or nursing home placement if needed);  and Being a Healthy Caregiver (practical tools to help unwind and de-stress, nutrition, journaling, advocacy, music therapy and deep breathing/relaxation exercises).