Living Our Legacies Family Caregivers’ Planning, Prevention and Engagement Framework
Caring for the Family Caregiver
The family caregiver's journey, at times, can feel isolated and lonely. The commitment to care for an aging loved one can cause depression, mental strain, and even physical pain. Given the demands and the responsibilities that family caregivers must face, support from congregational church members who share a common faith could be a real benefit. In its extended role, as kind of an extended family, the African American church is in a unique position to play a vital role in mitigating family caregiving stress due to the emphasis on Christian faith and service. With the focus of the Detroit Family Caregivers’ Project— Living Our Legacies to give much attention to family caregivers’ self -care, living well, and living legacies, the Ralph C. Wilson Jr Foundation created an opportunity for collective efforts. As a result, an interdisciplinary think tank including social workers, ministers, hospice workers, mental health professionals, Detroit chaplains , and hundreds of faith leaders of several Christian denominations has pledged to provide support to the growing numbers of family caregivers in the African American Detroit community through an initiative called “Caring Congregations.” “Caring Congregations” was developed to build on current acts of care, caring, and caregiving and to extend guidance to the Detroit Family Caregivers’ Project—Living Our Legacies that fosters support for family caregivers. The effort is to strengthen families by building on the existing traditions and legacies of care and caregiving that African American churches currently provide family caregivers in their need for community, information, education, resources, and assistance in areas that may include both formal (professional) support and informal (friends, neighbors, family) support. Caring Congregations will pave a path for family caregivers that will foster an initiative to help them heal spiritually, mentally, emotionally, financially, and physically as well as reduce feelings of isolation and loneliness.
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