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The challenges that come with aging and caring for loved ones are real and ever present for millions of Americans each day. As caregivers everywhere know, supporting the needs of a loved one can be a uniquely taxing role. Like many of life’s obstacles, the burdens of these challenges can be lessened with the support of others. Kathy Shepard, Director of Sales for Oak Pointe of Monett, has been facilitating support groups for many years across several different professional roles. Kathy now leads two sets of groups in her current role, a grief support group held at Oak Pointe, and three caregiver support groups across her community.
Kathy sees her work with these groups as a calling, and finds it easy to explain why groups she’s started are still around and meeting. “It’s because they work,” she explains simply. While all disease progressions are different, there are common challenges and hardships faced by all caregivers. “Attendees just bond once they are here. They bond with everyone because they are all going down the same road.” For her caregiver support groups, Kathy says that they have a mix of regularly returning members, and are always seeing new people join each session. Those that take the first steps in joining continue to attend more often than not. Kathy’s co-facilitator for one of her support groups started off as a member of the group herself, and also now volunteers in the Oak Pointe community. “She and I have become really good friends,” explains Kathy. “All of that started through caregiver support – we were brought together because of life’s challenges and look where it has led.”
As well as human connection and conversation, the groups provide additional resources and reading materials for attendees to further their learning. In an upcoming session, Kathy will provide a resource on grief during the holidays, an often overlooked time of year for those that are struggling. She also provides attendees with a copy of the book “Surviving Alzheimer’s,” a resource she considers a must-have for those caring for a loved one with dementia. “I want to provide people with resources that are actually useful to them,” Kathy explains. The resources that Kathy provides are designed to be quick, useful references for people looking to handle the specific challenges of their day to day.
For many attending a support group, this is also their first step on a journey to transitioning the care of a loved one to an assisted living or memory care community. For Kathy, this is an important opportunity to meet people on their level and be a valuable resource for those making a transition. “It’s an opportunity for me to build a relationship and trust with loved ones,” Kathy explains. “It’s a big transition and we can help provide comfort that wouldn’t exist simply by walking into a building for a tour.”
In addition to her three caregiver support groups, Kathy facilitates a grief support group at the Oak Pointe community. Kathy describes this group as one where people are encouraged to come and talk openly about their feelings in a safe space. Like the caregiver groups, the grief support attendance is a mix of regular returning members and new people. Because grief and loss are a natural part of aging, there is an ever present need for open conversation and understanding. With her long background in working with people, Kathy understands that it’s important to acknowledge and confront life’s challenges. “Not confronting our grief can lead us to miss out on a lot of things like not learning more about a loved one because we don’t want to face reality,” says Kathy. “Some people will try to stick their head in the sand, and that just doesn’t work very well.”
Kathy knows the power of bringing people together from her own grief journey. After losing her husband in 1999, Kathy slowly began the painful process of recovery by journaling. As she searched for more resources, she found it difficult to sift through the limited information available to her on grief, and certainly did not find any true support groups. She now sees her work as a way to help others that are on the same path. “Once I got through my own grief journey, I decided I was going to do something to help others because it was such a hard time for me. I like being able to bring that value,” Kathy says of her experience.
Kathy’s three caregiver support groups are free and open to the public. Groups are hosted at separate locations throughout each month: Monett, Republic, and Shell Knob. All of Kathy’s caregiver groups are approved through the American Alzheimer’s Association and Kathy herself has taken the organization’s facilitator training, so attendees can trust that they are in capable, qualified, and caring hands. The grief support group meets at the Oak Pointe of Monett community twice monthly. You can download the informational flier on both groups below.
If you’d like more information about Provision Living communities and all of the resources that are available to senior residents and their loved ones, you can reach out to us at 1-844-288-7463 or request information online.
You can download the fliers for both support groups by clicking the links below:
