The Caregiving Soul

Dannelle speaks with Jason Resendez, President and CEO of the National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC), where he leads research, policy, and innovation initiatives to build health, wealth, and equity for America’s 53 million family caregivers. On this episode, we are exploring how organizations can impact the infrastructure of care in the United States on the national level. As more people become aware of the importance and challenges of family caregiving, there is a higher demand for better support and resources for people in care partnerships. By bringing family caregiving into the public consciousness, policymakers, and organizations such as NAC can begin to create meaningful change that improves the lives of caregivers and those they care for. 

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Jasmine Ereaux always knew she wanted to pursue a career in the medical field. What she didn’t expect was the strong bond she would build with Margaret, a resident at an assisted living facility where she worked. Jasmine is now Margaret’s in-home caregiver and shares her unique experience as a young professional caregiver on TikTok. While she and Margaret have an 80-year age gap, she is able to find so many similarities between them. Jasmine truly cares for Margaret’s dignity and focuses not only on her healthcare needs, but also on her appearance and personhood. Jasmine shows us that there is a difference between caring and administering care.  

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Jamie Roberts, founder of Equilibrium Counseling Services, shares about her decision to become a therapist, which stems from her own personal experience of struggling with mental health as a teen. She realized that she wanted to provide support and guidance to others in hopes that they would gain the tools to navigate difficult situations more mindfully. She and Dannelle discuss mindfulness, improving communication with your child, and what questions to ask when searching for a therapist.

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As parents and caregivers, eating competence and how we react and respond to behaviors around food can be a major point of contention and frustration. Today Dannelle speaks with Keira Oseroff, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Certified Eating Disorder Specialist who serves as a Faculty Member and Speaker for the Ellyn Satter Institute – an organization that helps thousands of parents, grandparents, children, teens, adults, and health professionals reimagine and reshape anxiety-infused relationships with food into joyful journeys of healthful well-being.

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At the age of two, Mike and Sarah Porath’s oldest child, Annabel, was diagnosed with Dup15Q syndrome, a rare disease with symptoms including motor delays, varying levels of autism spectrum disorder, and epilepsy. Through relating with other parents who had children with the same disease, they began to feel supported and less alone. As they continued hearing these parents’ stories Mike and Sarah began to develop the idea of a platform that would allow others to connect around any health issue, which became the launchpad for The Mighty, an online health community of more than 4 million users sharing over 50.000 personal health stories.

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When Patti LaFleur’s mother, who had been diagnosed with dementia had to move in with her and her husband seemingly overnight, they didn’t know quite what to expect. When she began sharing their care partnership on TikTok as @CarepartnerPatti, Patti and her mother’s journey became a comfort and resource for others navigating similar experiences. Since her mother’s passing in 2022, Patti has refocused her energy on her own healing and providing resources about dementia and grief through her social media and website. 

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Today Dannelle talks about National Minority Health Month, an annual observance in April that raises awareness about health disparities that affect racial and ethnic minorities. The Chronic Disease Alliance is hosting a livestream event on Addressing Health Disparities this Thursday, April 6th at 1pm EST/10am PST. Register for the event here! 

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Dannelle speaks with Monica Moreno, Senior Director of Care and Support at the Alzheimer’s Association, about the importance of broadening our definition of communication to include touch, body language, and other forms of emotional connection beyond words. If we are able to acknowledge the idea that conversation is connection in the earlier stages of a diagnosis, we can be sure to understand what is most important to our loved one even when dementia related behaviors become a more primary form of communication.

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With over 10 years of medical experience in pediatrics, Dr. Nicole Rochester found herself on the other side of the doctor-patient relationship as a caregiver for her father. From this point of view, even as an experienced physician, Dr. Nicole began to see the difficulties of coordinating care and acting as an advocate on her father’s behalf. She knew she wasn’t alone in this struggle.

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Dannelle speaks with NPR journalist, Kitty Eisele. After commuting between houses to take her father to his to doctor’s appointments and prepare his meals, Kitty decided to move back into her childhood home to care for her father full time. What was expected to be a short-term solution turned into 3 years of living with her father before his passing in 2021. She found herself bewildered by the medical, legal, and emotional challenges of caregiving and documented it through an audio diary project, Twenty-Four Seven: A Podcast About Caregiving. 

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