Caregiver support group offering assistance, resources since 2007

For those who find themselves in a situation where they have to take care of a family member or a friend with Alzheimer’s or another potentially fatal disease, finding the right guidance may not be easy first.

In Jackson County, Zennie McClintock wants to provide that guidance — as well as the opportunity for more experienced caregivers to connect and share ideas.

That’s the motivation behind the Caregivers Support Group, which meets from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month at the downstairs care room at Holton Community Hospital. The next meeting is scheduled for this coming Tuesday, McClintock said, and it’s open to anyone who is taking care of someone with any kind of ongoing illness.

“We are all caregivers in some way,” McClintock said.

The group has been meeting since 2007, when it first formed as the Alzheimer’s/Dementia Caregivers Support Group and started meeting at the hospital. McClintock, a social worker for HCH who has been part of the support group since its inception, said there were a number of support groups in the area, but none that specialized for Alzheimer’s patients in the more immedicate vicinity.

“A spokesperson from the Alzheimer’s Association came and gave a talk and encouraged us to form our own support group,” McClintock said. “As a social worker, I was there to make sure that there was a flow of information and ideas.”

Charlotte Marriott was also there at the beginning as “one of the instigators of this group,” she said, having some experience as a caregiver for an Alzheimer’s patient. Together, they worked to build a group that would eventually expand its focus beyond Alzheimer’s and dementia.

“We changed it to the Caregivers Support Group, because when we had lots of members, we didn’t want to direct it only to Alzheimer’s,” McClintock said. “It’s now open to anyone who’s taking care of anyone with a disease.”

In the past, the group had several members attending its monthly meetings, including a handful of people from the Horton area. Today, McClintock said, there are “only a few who attend consistently,” with attendance varying from meeting to meeting.

“It’s not a big group, but I won’t close it,” she said. “People will need it, and I’ll be here for them.”

Some of those who do attend regularly are truly “dedicated” to that exchange of ideas between caregivers, McClintock added, and “they learn a lot from each other.” She also noted that her job with those who attend, whether occasionally or regularly, is to “help facilitate the conversation and give (caregivers) community resources, like directing them to the right facilities, if and when the time comes that they can no longer be the caregiver at home.”

That, she said, has happened to one of the group’s regulars, as his wife needed more care than he was able to give her at home. McClintock’s input, as well as input from other members of the group, has been beneficial to him and his situation, she added.

“He’s more relieved now. He liked our support group because we have the opportunity to vent, and he needed to say what was on his mind,” she said. “He knows that we understand that all the members have been in the same boat at some time.”

For more information on the Caregivers Support Group, call McClintock at 364-9696 or Amy Spiker at 364-3164.