Hospice of the Comforter

On Saturday, February 6, hospice and community caregivers attended Taking Care: Hope and Wellbeing During Your Caregiver Journey, here at Hospice of the Comforter's campus. We had 38 caregivers take the day to learn about better ways of caring for themselves while fulfilling their important roles with the loved ones they care for.

After an opening talk and exercise with facilitator and author Margery Pabst, where participants assessed their “emotional bank accounts”, they broke out for six concurrent sessions. The topics offered were

· Maintaining Boundaries/Asking for Help

· Riding the Roller Coaster of Emotions

· Embracing Family Conflict

· Practical Tools for Staying in Balance

· Using My Strengths

· Building Bridges: Making Transitions Work

After a wonderful lunch provided by the Altamonte Springs Olive Garden, the participants practiced journal writing and creating positive affirmations, and finished the day by sharing their action plans for self-care when they return to their caregiving duties. Another special treat was receiving a free copy of Margery’s book Enrich Your Caregiving Journey.

The following comments from the day’s evaluations sum up how participant’s felt about their experience:

“Thank you for all the effort to make today so valuable. The book is a precious gift.”

“…knowing that I am not alone…the sharing of others. I am so glad I attended.”

“Incredibly knowledgeable and experienced people delivering the presentation, filled with an empathetic entity.”

“I feel like some pressure has been released.”

“It is so important to seek help before you get in crisis mode”

“You must do more. The caregiver community is hungry for this.”

Thanks to Margery, and to our wonderful volunteers who lead the breakout sessions, and especially to Darden Restaurants Employee Club, Olive Garden/Altamonte Springs for their extremely generous donation which allowed to hold this day without any cost to the participants.