May is National Asian Pacific American Heritage Month and it continues on our podcast. Earlier we spoke to Rogene Calvert about experiences and observations on caregiving in the Asian-American Community. In this podcast, Jane Vo, Senior Program Director of the Chinese Community Center of Houston, talks caregiving resources they offer in English, Mandarin and other languages. She also discusses other Houston organizations that help Asian-American caregivers.

For those of you who may not know, May is National Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. In Houston, with one of the largest Asian American populations in the United States, that's a pretty big deal.

In this Prepare to Care Podcast episode host Marie-Pierre talks to Rogene Calvert. She's a longtime leader in Houston's Asian American Community. Calvert reveals her personal caregiving story and discusses how caregiving is approached differently in the Asian American community. She'll also talk about available resources for other AAPI caregivers.

Being in a big city like Houston means there are tons of resources for caregivers if you know here to find them. Which is why AARP in Houston started this podcast. The idea is to help highlight the exact partners and programs you might need as a caregiver. We have been shedding light on the programs in Houston, but what is available to our neighbors around us? What happens if you live in Waller, Fort Bend or Galveston County? What are your options there?

In this latest edition of our Prepare to Care podcast we talk to Mallory Freitag, Lead Benefits Counseling Coordinator with the Harris-Galveston Area Council. She and guest host, Isabel Longoria, discuss resources and programs available to people living in areas outside Houston.

We spend a lot of time on this podcast talking about how to fix problems. Where can you find a good geriatric doctor, who can help dad with depression, how can I fall-proof my home, and much more. So, instead of seeing caregiving as a just a series of problems to solve, what if we thought about it as an opportunity to engage with our loved ones and help them share their wisdom with our communities? In this podcast Jose Rivera, Assistant Director of Senior Engagement and Connection at BakerRipley, will help us all think differently about caregiving and aging. What are some ways we can think creatively about engaging with our loved ones, what wisdom do older people have to share with a bigger community and how can we Disrupt Aging every day in our own lives? We discuss all that in this Prepare to Care podcast.

We've mentioned before that if you are in kindergarten today, you have a 50% chance of living to be 100 years old. The average lifespan increases every year. The bottom line is that people are living longer. And we know instinctively as caregivers that our parents are living longer than our grandparents did. This all changes the way we are providing care as a community. One of those big changes is the growth of geriatric medicine. It is the study of how aging affects our bodies over a longer period of time.

AARP Prepare to Care podcast host, Marie-Pierre, spoke to Dr. Nasiya Ahmed, a geriatric specialist at Village Physicians in this podcast. They talked about the difference between a geriatric physician and a family physician. When it is time to switch to a geriatric specialist, and what can gerontology teach us about being better caregivers.

Family caregivers went into the job knowing it would take much of your time, but you may not have expected it to take quite so much of your money. For example, we know that 42 percent of family caregivers spend more than $5,000 on reimbursed care for loved ones.

If this is your first time filing taxes as a caregivers, or your 20th, we have some tips that may help you save money this year. AARP Houston staff member, Isabel Longoria, has more on the Tax-Aide services and even offers up some tips.

Spring is finally here. Whether it's clearing out clutter from the garage, rebuilding after Hurricane Harvey or just tackling a home project, Spring is a great time to make our homes more Caregiving Friendly.

In this edition of our Prepare to Care podcast, host Marie-Pierre talks to Isabel Longoria, with AARP in Houston. They discuss changes that can make your home fit for a person of any age. They will discuss everything from the 10 cent solution to make drinking glasses easier to use to the bigger projects of making a restroom more accessible.

People are living longer. In fact, if you are a kindergartner today, you have a 50% chance of living to be 100. But for as much as medicine and technology is advancing to help us live longer and stronger, at some point we all pass away. So what can we do for our loved ones when it is their time to pass? How can we make those last few weeks, days or moments as pain-free as possible?

Podcast host Marie-Pierre spoke to Dr. Nasiya Ahmed, a geriatric specialist, to talk about palliative care. What are the options for end of life care, and how we can take care of ourselves and our loved ones through this difficult process.

When we think of Caregiving, we often think of family. The daughter taking care of her parents, the husband taking care of a wife, siblings taking care of each other. It is a beautiful thing to be able to count on your family in a time of need, but what happens when things escalate to a point where professional care is needed? A classic example are loved ones who develop dementia and need specialized care, or perhaps a new job is not as flexible and understanding of your caregiving needs.

In this episode of the AARP Prepare to Care podcast, host Marie-Pierre talks to Nancy Wilson. She is a professor of geriatric medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine. She will give us some insights on how to decide when it is time to transition to receive care in a professional setting and the different types of assisted living options available. You can get more information on AARP in Houston at aarp.org/houston and The Baylor College of Medicine at www.bcm.edu.

In honor of Black History Month, AARP in Houston is taking time to learn from African-American Caregivers in the Bayou City. We are looking at some nuances and expectations of being a caregivers in the African-American community, and what are some resources that caregivers in this community find useful. Many of these resources may be of interest to all caregivers as well.

To speak with us about all of this we've invited Bennie Blake. She is a long-time caregiving volunteer with AARP in Houston. She also cares for various family members and friends, and she often leans on the things she learned while serving as a medical professional in the Army. Bennie will be sharing some of her personal experiences and observations as a caregiver, the impact of caregiving on her own health, and how being African American has shaped the way she cares for her loved ones.