Caregiver's Night Out hosted at Tsi Tetewatatkens

In the past, the annual Caregiver’s Conference has been held on the weekend but a recommendation was made to host it as a dinner this year in honor of the 10-year anniversary. Caregiver’s Night Out was held last night at the Tsi Tetewatatkens – Office for the Aging and was open to caregivers in and around the community of Akwesasne. Each year has a different theme of speakers as part of the conference and for this year the theme of ‘Aging In The Home’ was chosen. There is currently a caregivers support group for anyone who provides care for a loved one with an illness, disability, is incapacitated or has dementia. The care could range from buying groceries, banking or personal care in the home – this involves so many people within the community.

The first speaker was Dr. Bruce Finke who is a family physician, geriatrician and serves as the national lead in Elder Care and Palliative Care Indian Health Service. Dr. Finke talked about the topic of aging in the home with things like safety issues, preparing documents for end of life and medication management.

“We wanted to keep the night more of a conversation than a lecture style,” said Caregiver Coordinator Mary Grow. “We have tons of information available for caregivers like the caregivers handbook that is open to anyone dropping in – we are just concerned with the caregivers stress level and want to help.”

With a higher population of people seeing their 90-plus birthday there are more being diagnosed with things like Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. These resources are supposed to help the caregiver with finding a balance of caring for both their charge along with maintaining their full-time job and caring for their own families.

The second speaker of the night was Kenna Laporte who has been working with Grow and the Tsi Tetewatatkens to have screenings done in Akwesasne. Laporte is a support worker who does education and outreach and talked about ‘Sensory Deficit Experiences.’ This included activities with participants to know what something like neuropathy is like; this was achieved by wearing rubber gloves with popcorn in the fingertips and then they were instructed to pick items up and do other tasks.

“It is great to get into topics like behavioral management,” said Grow of Laporte’s presentation. “This deals with people who repeat questions and how to deal with wondering family members. It really is about personal care and learning how to present questions to a person.”

In addition to the great information provided by the two knowledgeable presenters, participants of the night were treated to a Turkey dinner. Participants were also presented with different resources available to them through the Tsi Tetewatatkens and specifically available in Grow’s office. These resources have been developed to help make your care giving experience less stressful. For more information on the information presented at the conference or how to contact either of the presenters you can reach the Caregiver Coordinator Mary Grow at 518-358-2963.