From This to This 3 25 2009 Caregiver Article

From this:

  A group of citizens is establishing a list of Caregivers for the communities of San Manuel, Oracle and Mammoth who are trained and interested in providing their services to others who are ill, recuperating, handicapped, medical patients or terminal.  Details of care and fees will be left for the caregiver and care receiver to negotiate.  The care would be in the homes of the recipients.  We are also exploring the possibility of private homes or other facilities that care recipients could stay for a short time.  From a few days to a few weeks.  To our knowledge, none of these services are available in our three communities.  If you are interested in participating as a caregiver please call Rosalinda at 385-4362 or Bill at 385-4589.

To this: Soc Caregiver Article 3 25 2009

Caring Begins At Home
During my work as a Caregiver with Lutheran Social Services, I found two things were very true that made it difficult for persons within the Tri-Community area, and the surrounding areas, to receive the care they needed.

The first is that, even though Lutheran Social Services pays fairly well, almost no one knew of this group and the work they were doing in caring for those who are ill, injured, and handicapped. Though, even when many of the ill were told about the possibility of getting help, many of them were leery of going through a long process of filling out forms and being disappointed.

The other is simple mathematics. 1 Caregiver plus 3 patients (12 hours care needed each) divided by 50 miles of distance, simple cannot equal 100 percent of the help needed. I have learned, since, that there were many Caregivers working for other agencies, but, it involved such a long commute, or such little pay, that they either moved away or changed profession, because most of the other agencies did not cover the Tri-Community area. Lutheran Social Services was doing good work, for those it could reach, but, there simply were not enough individuals applying for a position to fulfill the needs of their potential client base.

I had to stop this work for various reasons, including a lack of transportation. While I was willing to work part-time in Mammoth, and while their were ill persons in Mammoth, most of those persons simply had no idea how to go about getting the help they needed, due to their own lack of transportation and, of course, lack of energy.

A group of citizens of the Tri-Communities area is currently establishing a list of Caregivers for the communities of San Manuel, Oracle, and Mammoth. They are seeking the names and availability of persons who are trained and interested in providing services and support to others who are ill, recuperating, handicapped, medical patients, and/or terminal, full time or part time.

The details of the care and fees will be left between the Caregiver and the care receiver. Most care will be in the homes of the recipients, though, you may find that in some cases, you’ll be helping them to get to the doctors, shop for groceries and such, depending on their level of mobility.

Also being explored is the possibility of private homes or other facilities where care recipients could stay for short term care of a few days to a few weeks. If you are interested in participating as a Caregiver, please call Rosalinda at 385-4362, or Bill at 385-4589.

For those who are low-income and in need of care, or for those Caregivers who are in need of potential work closer to home, visiting Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest http://www.lss-sw.org/ would be a good start. During my time with them, I worked with people who were extremely low-income before their troubles started, and persons who had been very high income and more in the habit of giving to others than the other way around, before disaster struck, so, if you need help, I’d suggest you contact them and let them help you figure out what is available to you.

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