Israeli study highlights caregivers overcoming grief through volunteerism

At the 119th convention of the American Psychological Association, Dr. Eleanor Pardess presented on Meaning, Opportunities, Validation, Involvement, Nature Group (MOVING), a bereavement-coping model utilized by trauma affected volunteer and professional caregivers to surmount grief and avoid burnout, the Jewish Tribune reports.

Dr. Pardess is the executive director of SALEH, an organization that provides support to trauma victims of terrorist attacks and other crises within Israel's immigrant communities. She conducted a three-year study of SALEH's volunteer and professional caregivers, also trauma survivors. Her research examined how the caregivers tapped their memories of receiving support in the aftermath of traumatic experiences to fuel the compassionate support they delivered to new immigrants coping with similar tragedies.

SALEH volunteer caregiver Luda, the mother of a murdered child, served as a model to Tanya when Tanya lost her son to a sniper attack after moving to Israel from Belarus. Luda used her three years of successfully coping with the loss of her son to teach Tanya how to continue living. Similar scenes reoccur frequently among SALEH's caregivers as they help newly arrived bereaved families.

Years after learning coping skills from Luda, Tanya helps another grieving mother. “I clearly remembered how I felt exactly the same way,” Tanya says. “I spoke with her about how I had felt and how I continue to live. I believe it helped her, just like what I heard from Luda when she helped me....When I give strength to others, I take strength from it. What I do as a volunteer is my own self-psychoanalysis.”

65.7 million adults in US are caregivers

In a comprehensive-joint study that sought to determine the differences in caregiver experiences since the publication of a similar report in 2004, the National Alliance for Caregiving and the AARP found that nearly one third or 29% of the US adult population is comprised of caregivers. Caregiving in the US 2009 describes the experiences of individuals caring for another adult, an elder or special needs child at an average 20-unpaid hours per week in the United States.

The study profiled the typical caregiver as a 48-year-old woman (66%), caring for a relative (86%), who is likely a parent (36%). Seventy percent of the time, care recipients are 50 or older (69-yrs.-old on average), incapacitated by the effects of old age (12%) and illnesses such as Alzheimer's (10%), mental or emotional distress (7%), stroke (5%) and heart disease (5%). The report also cites the racial and ethnic backgrounds of caregivers: 72% white, 13% black, 12% Latino, 2% Asian and 2% other.

Reporting other data on the income levels, employment status and more about US caregivers, the in-depth study presents a snapshot on the simplest and most complex aspects of caregiving in the US today.

Elderly immigrants live and cope in isolation

“They never win spelling bees,” said Judith Treas, a sociology professor and demographer at the University of California at Irvine, about America's isolated immigrant elderly in the New York Times article, "Invisible Immigrants, Old and Left With Nobody to Talk To." “They do not join criminal gangs. And nobody worries about Americans losing jobs to Korean grandmothers.”

Sociologists have coined the term ".5 generation" for this cohort of late-life immigrants, who arrived in the US too late to become bi-cultural. Seventy percent of them are unable to speak or read English. Some do not drive and lack the confidence to take the bus alone. A few spend their time in front of the TV reading actors' facial expressions on the screen to decipher story lines. Others babysit their grandchildren. Many of them stay at home, hidden away from the social connections that keep depression and other psychological disorders at bay.

They also hold a special distinction as America's fastest growing immigrant group. Their ranks have expanded by 11% since 1990 from 2.7 million to 4.3 million. By 2050, their numbers will increase even more to 16 million. In 2007, 16% of them lived below the poverty line, compared with 12% of their native-born counterparts, UCLA's Center for Health Policy Research data reveals. Twenty-four percent are considered near poor.

Some municipalities are reaching out to this group of seniors through targeted programs. Fremont, California, has a mobile mental health unit and volunteer ambassadors that assist immigrant seniors in tapping resources at social service agencies. Chicago's Depression Project helps older immigrants dodge the psychological effects of social isolation.

One member of the cohort took matters into his own hands: Pravinchandra Patel, 84, founded the 100 Years Living Club to foster community among the men of this immigrant community. For the past 14 years, the club's members have gathered at malls and other public places to socialize with each other, share snacks and discuss the issues of the day.

Younger neighbors are also working to ease the difficulties of immigrant seniors. Kashmir Singh Shahi, 43, volunteers with Community Ambassadors Program for Seniors. He serves as a listening ear and guide to available resources for Hardev Singh, 76, who takes two buses to work the night shift at a gas station full-time. “I don’t want to become idle in the heart,” Singh said.

Germany grapples with needs of immigrant pensioners

During its boom years after World War II, Germany launched a guest worker program that has resulted today in some 2.5 million of its residents being of Turkish descent. Currently, the country is preparing for the retirement of the aging members of this community.

Among the challenges Germany will address as it responds to the needs of older Turkish immigrants is educating eligible individuals of their rights to a pension: 79% of eligible Turks draw their public pension compared to 96% of native Germans.

Public and private nursing facilities are also responding to this emerging need by offering culturally-sensitive services such as halal meals, Friday religious programs and prayer rooms that face Mecca. To keep down costs, many of the facilities rely on government subsidies.

Abstract of Growing old in a new home; Germany tries to integrate its senior Turkish citizens by Naomi Kresge, The International Herald Tribune

On stumbling into caregiving and lessons learned

In Parade's lead story "How Can We Help Our Nation's Caregivers?," Gail Sheehy outlined healthcare system facts she was surprised to learn upon abruptly becoming a caregiver after her husband's cancer diagnosis. Some of her newly acquired knowledge included information already posted here in previous entries on the loss of income to caregivers and the profile of a typical caregiver. New names were added to the list of employers creating caregiver-friendly policies -- Nike and Johnson and Johnson.

The new information was on Medicare, Medicaid and initiatives under consideration by states to assist caregivers:

• “Boomers are shocked when they find out Medicare won’t pay for any long-term care for chronic illness,” Gail Gibson Hunt, CEO and president of the National Alliance for Caregiving, said.


• It is difficult for boomers to qualify for Medicaid's long-term care benefits, unless they have lost all of their assets, including their homes, per 2006 insertions by Congress.


• California's new insurance program allows caregivers to take six weeks off to care for a loved one while continuing to receive 55% of their wages.


• Sixteen caregiving bills mostly offering tax incentives to caregivers "survived the legislative process" between 2004 and 2006.
  
• Twelve states plan to bolster family-leave act laws this year.

Over one million children are caregivers

In "When A Kid Becomes the Caregiver," the Washington Post profiled one of the nation's 1.4 million, age eight to 18, children caregivers. The subject of the feature, Aleyna Castillo, 18, a first-year student at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, moved her mother cross state to a house near campus to continue caring for her as she attends classes.

"I can't totally abandon my mom," Castillo said. "She needs me." To balance her academic, social and caregiving responsibilities, she will live on campus, deviating from this intention only for emergencies.

The article also outlined the general characteristics of youth caregivers: They deal with a lot of stress, often live in isolation, experience mood swings and exhibit anti-social behavior. They also wear several hats as companions, diaper and feeding tube changers, errand runners and more. Fears that scrutiny of their circumstances will lead to charges of abuse or neglect against their care recipients constantly haunt them.

Few resources are available to them in the US, except as targeted programs by foundations such as the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, which provides counseling, social activities and other services. One nurse in Florida has also launched a program, believed to be the the nation's only, for caregiving youths in that state's public schools.

By comparison, caregiving children in England are recognized through the country's census and receive law-mandated assistance from some 350 agencies that counsel them, help with homework and plan social activities.

Sen. Robert Byrd speaks on aging

Robert Byrd (D-West Virginia), 89, the US' longest-serving senator in history addressed his own aging in a speech on the senate floor in response to a story in the Charleston Daily Mail that attributed some changes in his handwriting to his advanced years. "The newspaper offered as proof the signatures on my Senate financial disclosure forms from last year and this year. It is true that this year's signature looks like I signed it in a moving car," he said. Other highlights from the speech include the following:

-Mr. President, I feel compelled to address head on, I mean head on, the news stories in recent weeks that have pointed out the shocking discovery, yes, shocking discovery, that I am growing older. Did you get that? Shocking discovery that I am growing older.

-Old age is not so bad when you consider the alternative.

-Abraham Lincoln once rightly observed: In the end, it's not the years of your life that count. It's the life in your years.

-I believe all ages and all occupations should be part of a truly representative body. I also believe society works best when the energy and idealism of youth, youth, youth, pairs with the experience and wisdom of age. America is the land of opportunities. I don't think our some 36 million citizens over the age of 65 are disqualified from participating in the life of the country that we--we--helped to build. Our country rejected those kinds of arbitrary barriers long ago, and this Senator loudly and proudly rejects them now.