Minutes of ESCOTA General Meetings

Minutes from the February 25, 2010 General Membership Meeting

Date of Meeting: Thursday, February 25, 2010
Presentation: Share the Care
Speaker: Sheila Warnock

Reeva Mager called the meeting to order at 3:30p and welcomed the group.

Mark L. Meridy, Executive Director of DOROT, introduced himself. He spoke of DOROT’s commitment to providing needed services to older adults and of the agency’s interest in partnering with other organizations in the aging community.

Announcements:

• The National Network for Social Work Managers Annual Conference: “Visionary Management: Preparing to be Agents for Change in a Post-Recession Environment.” April 29 & 30, 2010. NYC, Fordham University at Lincoln Center. To register, visit socialworkmanager.org and/or contact Shelly Wimpfheimer at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)


• DOROT is accepting referrals for Passover Package Delivery (for March 21.) Catchment area: 59th–125th Streets on West Side, 14th–96th Streets on East Side. DOROT has holiday package deliver 4 times per year. Call Karen DeOssie, Reeva Mager or the Info & Referral line for more info or to make a referral: 212-769-2850.

Presentation:

Sheila Warnock, Founder and President, Share the Cargiving, Inc.
Co-Author of “Share the Care”
sharethecare.org
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Share the Care™ is a successful grassroots group caregiving model that came out of a real-life experience in New York City when 12 women came together to care for a mutual friend with terminal cancer.  Over three and a half years they developed forms and a rotating system of responsibility so no one person had too much to do.

Later, after helping others start groups, two of them documented their work into a 330-page handbook with step-by-step instructions so others could replicate what they had done.  Share The Care focuses, not only on starting a group, but also maintaining it over time (years). The handbook addresses working together as a group, emotional issues, and signals when a group needs to have a second meeting to make adjustments.

Share The Care™:

• Has supported people of all ages with a wide variety of diseases, disabilities and conditions including the challenges of aging and multiple births
• Groups care not only for the person in need but also their entire family
• Groups are made up of people of all ages AND include and work with professionals such as nurses aides, visiting nurses, hospice
• Group size averages 30-50 people (much smaller for older adults)
• Helps to uncover and make the most of the unique skills, talents, contacts and experience of group members

Sheila described briefly how a Share The Care group gets started.  It takes two motivated people to organize the first meeting and is not a job for the patient of family caregiver. These two people are called (only for the purpose of organizing) - the Leader and Coordinator.  
They will work with the patient and family to:

1. Brainstorm about whom to invite (Leader and Coordinator will put out the invitations)
2. Create list of what kind of help is needed (skills and talents)
3. Decide on other details: date of meeting and location
4. Then the Leader and Coordinator study chapters 3-9, prepare meeting forms, and become familiar with the meeting script and exercises
5. Following the meeting, coordinator sends out contact and other information

The power point presentation ended with a review of groups from all over the US and Canada and some of their unique accomplishments. This served to highlight the variety and uniqueness of groups as well as the Share The Care model’s ability to work for any situation or person who needs it.

For more information, see the Share the Care website (www.sharethecare.org). There are links to Amazon if you wish to purchase the 2004 edition of Share the Care: How to Organize a Group to Care for Someone Who is Seriously Ill by Cappy Capossela and Sheila Warnock, Simon & Schuster Fireside Books, 1995, 2004. To learn about ShareTheCaregiving Trainings, workshops and lectures, contact Sheila at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

The meeting was adjourned at 5:00pm.

Next Meeting:

Date: Thursday, March 11, 2010
Location: Carter Burden Luncheon Club, 351 East 74th Street
Presentation: When a Senior Dies – Caring for the Caregiver
Speaker: Judith Kahn, MA; Carol Kamine-Brown, LCSW; Chaplain Meredith Lisagor

Respectfully submitted by Amy Stern, Secretary

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