Caregiver assistance comes to Washakie County

WORLAND – Wyoming Senior Citizens Inc. is offering Washakie County residents a program for adult caregivers called National Family Caregiver Support, to assist caregivers in providing for the needs of their family members.

Wyoming Senior Citizens Inc., founded in 1975, is a nonprofit agency with the view of meeting the needs of older residents.

Kelly Shaffer, program manager for National Family Caregiver Support Program, said, “The program is designed to help caregivers who are giving care to those who are 60 and older who are dependent on their caregiver. They could be a 24-hour caregiver, such as a husband taking care of his wife or vice versa, a family member or a neighbor taking care of their neighbor, someone that is dependent on someone else to help them with their everyday tasks. That could include like an adult child taking care of their mom who still lives at home. The child is having to come over and make sure that they help take care of the household duties, cleaning the house, changing bedding because mom just can’t do it anymore, managing the bills making sure that’s being taken care of, going and doing the shopping, those kinds of things.”

“Priority for service is given to older individuals and families with the greatest social and economic need,” she added.

The added stress and responsibility of taking care of a family member can cause the caregiver to feel alone and overwhelmed, which in turn can cause the caregiver to feel guilty. The program gives the caregiver a chance to step away for a minute and do something for themselves, to take care of their needs without guilt or stress for a while. A respite worker can come in and sit with the caregivers loved one, do light housework or help with the shopping to alleviate some of the burden, Shaffer said.

“It is crucial for caregivers to take a break from their caregiving responsibilities in order to continue for the long-term,” she added.

Respite workers are not medically trained and cannot perform medical procedures. “We are not able to do medical, that requires a CNA (certified nurse’s assistant) or home health worker,” she added.

The program is paid for by grants by the Federal government and by voluntary contribution. “We do ask for some payment for services, however because it is voluntary, if there is a situation where they can’t pay the whole amount, that ends up being written off. Because the main focus is to help and support caregivers in general,” Shaffer said. “Any monies that come into the program go directly back to the program for that county. With any federal program, or with most of them there is requirements that we have for match and that goes directly toward that in order to help keep our program going,” she added.

The National Family Caregiver Support Program is offered in 10 Wyoming counties: Washakie, Big Horn, Carbon, Converse, Fremont, Goshen, Hot Springs, Laramie, Natrona and Park, with openings in all counties with the exception of Big Horn County. Interested caregivers in Big Horn County will be put on a waiting list.

Respite workers do not work weekends or evenings and caregivers who are paid to be caregivers are not eligible for assistance. “So if they are on the Medicaid waiver and they are being paid for that service, then we cannot assist because they are seen as a professional caregiver,” Shaffer stated.

Additional services will soon be available such as education and a support group. “We are looking at creating a support group, but a different type of support group, we are looking at possible getting it set up on the phone to make it more user friendly, more flexible just because it is so hard to get away sometimes for caregivers so that they are able to still have that connection with others,” Shaffer stated.