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Virginia's ALZHEIMER'S
COMMISSION
ALZPOSSIBLE
INITIATIVE |
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EXPRESSIONS ON CAMERA:
"What Has
the Caregiving Experience Meant to You?" |
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MEOC'S Project Wins Hearts and Immortalizes Emotions |
by
Marilyn Pace Maxwell
Mountain Empire Older Citizens,
Inc. (MEOC) has served the residents of far southwest
Virginia since 1974 and operates as the region's area
agency on aging, public and specialized
transportation entity and Children's Advocacy Center.
MEOC's mission statement
includes a strong emphasis on supporting family
caregivers. MEOC's services for caregivers have received
national recognition from the National Council on Aging
and The MetLife Foundation/National Alliance For Family
Caregiving and include: in home respite, 10 community
group respite centers, emergency and overnight respite,
adult day health care, caregiver support groups
including an online support group, caregiver training
and education, caregiver resource library,
transportation, homemaker services, personal care
services, home-delivered meals, personal emergency
response service, care coordination, public advocacy on
caregiver issues and a special technology project in
which teenagers learn how to teach Alzheimer's
caregivers to use the Internet to assist them in their
caregiving.
In the early fall of 2007,
MEOC's Director of Family Support Services, Julia Trivett
Dillon, acted upon a long time idea of MEOC to put
together a
collection of photographs showcasing area family caregivers and
their loved ones served by MEOC. Her
interest had been rekindled when she was participating
in a meeting of The Virginia Caregiver's Coalition and
learned that the Adult Day Care Center of Central
Virginia had done a photography project with their
participants.
Julia enlisted the
assistance of MEOC's Director of Administrative Services,
Ray Moore, a very talented amateur photographer. Together they made arrangements with 12
families who had agreed to participate in the project.
Photographs, all in color, were made at a variety of
locations, dependent on the wishes of the caregiver.
Some were made in the home, some were made at adult day
health care and community group respite centers, while
others were made in favorite outdoor locales. The
caregivers participating were from Lee,
Wise, Scott Counties and the City of Norton. Their loved
ones received a variety of community based services
from MEOC. Some caregivers requested that the photograph
include MEOC's in-home worker saying that the
relationship between the geriatric aide and the care
recipient was so close that it seemed more like the aide
was a family member.
Each caregiver received a
framed copy of his/her photograph. Each caregiver was asked to
write a statement in response to the question: "What has
the caregiving experience meant to you?" The statements
were featured next to the appropriate photographs.
MEOC unveiled the
photographs for the first time at its 18th Annual
Alzheimer's Seminar in November as part of its local
efforts to recognize National Family
Caregivers Month and National Alzheimer's Disease
Awareness Month. The photo display has also been
featured at the various libraries in The Lonesome Pine
Regional Library System and at The Oxbow Health and
Human Services Center in St. Paul.
We invite everyone to
review and share this album.
All photographs are courtesy of Ray Moore.
To start the slideshow, click on the green button.
To control the speed of the show, click on the "pause"
button and then advance the slides from the "right
arrow" button.
Should you wish to
comment on this album, please visit
www.meoc.org or write
to us at virtualcenter@alzpossible.org.
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