{"id":3554,"date":"2019-08-05T18:59:43","date_gmt":"2019-08-05T18:59:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ageofcentraltx.org\/?p=3554"},"modified":"2019-08-06T20:06:34","modified_gmt":"2019-08-06T20:06:34","slug":"caregiving-is-hard-age-of-central-texas-makes-it-easier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ageofcentraltx.org\/index.php\/2019\/08\/05\/caregiving-is-hard-age-of-central-texas-makes-it-easier\/","title":{"rendered":"Caregiving is hard. AGE of Central Texas makes it easier."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The AGE of Central Texas mission is to help caregivers AND<\/strong> their loved ones as they navigate the realities and opportunities of aging and caregiving. This means that caregivers are given support, education, resources, a shoulder to cry on, and more from the staff at the AGE Thrive Social & Wellness Centers. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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An example of a hardworking and dedicated caregiver is Amanda\nGaultney who cares for her 76-year-old mother, Barbara. Barbara has been a\nmember of our Williamson County Thrive Center for three years and is beloved by\nstaff. Married at the young age of 17, Barbara went on to have five children\nand provided for her household through a wide variety of jobs following the\ndeath of her husband.  Barbara worked as\na cleaner, a florist, and was a live in caregiver for many years. Barbara takes\nreal joy from helping others and has a passion for all animals \u2013 including her\nbeloved bearded dragon, who she would go so far as to sneak into doctor\nappointments by putting him in her purse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, Barbara got sick. Her dementia started\nhindering her judgement and ability to care for herself, so her daughter\nstepped up to become her full-time caregiver. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amanda found AGE of Central Texas through an online search\nafter her mother\u2019s heath began to decline. She knew that her mother was no\nlonger independent enough to live in a regular assisted living facility, but\nwasn\u2019t ready for a nursing home. This led her to AGE. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The AGE Thrive Social & Wellness Centers<\/a> provide an older adult who is unable to care for themselves independently with a safe place to receive care each day while their caregiver takes a break to work, care for children, or do some much needed self-care. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can\u2019t imagine what our life would be like if we hadn\u2019t\nfound AGE,\u201d Amanda said. \u201cThis is a place where people really care about her\nand are patient with her. I know that the staff are looking for things\nmedically that I would be looking for. I know she\u2019s in a place that\u2019s designed\nfor her where she can enjoy herself and be safe.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

AGE staff work with the caregivers to encourage them to take\ncare of themselves and support them as they make incredibly hard decisions.\nIt\u2019s easy for a caregiver to be consumed by their duties and to lose their\noriginal role as a daughter or spouse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUnless we are in a situation when she isn\u2019t depending on me\nthen I don\u2019t feel like her daughter,\u201d Amanda said.  \u201cWhen she\u2019s in a place I can trust, I feel\nlike I\u2019m off-duty. I hug her more, kiss her more, and ask her more questions. I\ndon\u2019t think our relationship would have survived without AGE.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The caregiving journey, similar to most, has not always been\neasy. Amanda said that one of the toughest decisions she had to make was to\nre-home her mother\u2019s cherished pets as she was no longer able to care for them.\nTelling your parent that she can\u2019t make all of her own decisions or even shower\nwithout notifying a family member, so that she can be assisted if she falls, is\nnot easy for the caregiver or the older adult. The stress that those decisions\nand the changing dynamics in relationships can be detrimental to caregivers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t realize how confining caregiving would be,\u201d Amanda\nsaid. \u201cI can\u2019t just go out to eat or take my 13-year-old daughter to the movies,\nbecause someone has to watch mom and \u2013 she\u2019s at the point where she doesn\u2019t\nwant to go out anymore. I put myself last, because the more I take care of my\nmom, the less I take care of me.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

AGE staff don\u2019t prioritize the needs of the older adult over\nthe caregiver. Instead, we work hard to provide the tools and support that the\ncaregiver needs while members of our center receive our specialized care. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe staff have been so supporting and encouraging,\u201d Amanda said. \u201cIt\u2019s so nice to that kind of support and to know that here are people on my team. AGE helped me be a better caregiver and a better daughter.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can help caregivers like Amanda get the support and resources they need by donating today! Your gift will be matched dollar-for-dollar until August 31, 2019, and will be used to give low-income older adults and caregivers access to our Thrive Social & Wellness Centers. Click here to give!<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The AGE of Central Texas mission is to help caregivers AND their loved ones as they navigate the realities and opportunities of aging and caregiving. This means that caregivers are given support, education, resources, a shoulder to cry on, and more from the staff at the AGE Thrive Social & Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-caregiving"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ageofcentraltx.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ageofcentraltx.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ageofcentraltx.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ageofcentraltx.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ageofcentraltx.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ageofcentraltx.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ageofcentraltx.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ageofcentraltx.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ageofcentraltx.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ageofcentraltx.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}