Pasadena Senior Center Hosts Caregiver Workshop Series

Caregivers from the Pasadena area joined nurse and caregiver Mary Fridley at the Pasadena Senior Center for the first workshop of the Living in the Land of OZ workshop series.

Fridley is the founder of Gero-Resources, LLC, a caregiver education and advocacy organization. She has been conducting these workshops at centers around the county to help caregivers of geriatrics through discussion and education.

"Today's event was about long-distance caregiving, about getting family involved and about vacations," said Fridley. "It's nice to think that you might be able to have a life without being controlled by what's going on with being a caregiver, but the reality is that you are being controlled by it. The caregiver needs to be the one that says that they need to take a break."

"The caregiver needs to be number one because if something happens to the caregiver, there's nobody to take care of the loved one," she added "It's not fair to the loved one."

Future workshops will discuss topics like Alzheimer's disease, reversed sleep/wake cycles and moving disabled loved ones when necessary.

Fridley placed particular emphasis on the problem posed by a reversed
sleep/wake cycle.

"That's the number one reason for placement," said Fridley, who added that there are a variety of causes for this problem. "One cause is boredom. If they think there's nothing to do, they just sit and fall asleep.They're getting all their sleep during the day and being wakeful at night. In other cases it's a brain dysfunction from the damage from their disease."

Fridley emphasized that placement wasn't necessarily an undesirable option but that both caregivers and loved ones needed to decide if it was the right choice.

"The ideal situation is for somebody to age in place at home and die at home," said Fridley. "If I have dementia, I told my children that they should make a decision about where I'll get the best care. That's the bottom line—whether it be in assisted living, a nursing home or at home, the bottom line is safety and quality of care."

The Workshops are free to attend. Future workshops will take place at the Pasadena Senior Center on April 11 and 18.