Recently one of our board members expressed concern that he did not know where to turn to when one of his parents had been diagnosed with dementia and at times did not know who he was when he went to visit his parents. His other parent, who was the caregiver, had gone to support groups at the local hospital but as a child or even grandhild, it has been very hard to accept this diease of a love one and learn how to react or cope with the issues that surrond the declining health of a parent.
One of our board members was discussing this issue with his wife, who is a licensed clinical social worker, and she agreed to call this member up to discuss how he could cope with his parents with this disease.
After talking with her, this member felt that other men or women may have the same issue and they are not conforting the issues head on. The member brought this issue up to our President of our Men's Club to see if we would entertain having a support group for NON caregivers that could be facilitated by this licensed clinical social worker. Since dementia and Alzheimer's parents are becoming more and more commen, it was decided to place something in the presidents message from Men's Club and to have our club support a Support Group by hosting an open forum once/month. Men's Club would sponsor the coffee and reserve the room at the Temple for this support group to meet. It was felt to meet on a weeknight so as not to interfere with family commitments on the weekends. We started out with 3 -4 people who met with the licensed clinical social worker. The Rabbi mentioned this support group from the Bima during announcement and more people have begun to show up. On some nights, there are 8 members that show up for support but the "core" is normally 5 - 6 members who need help in adapting and coping with this serious disease.