CALDWELL, Idaho — Family caregivers give a lot of themselves to help others and the job can take an emotional and financial toll. According to an AARP study, that's especially true in the Hispanic community.
On Wednesday, local family caregivers attended a final ‘Powerful Tools For Caregivers’ workshop inside the Caldwell WICAP building.
“At the agency, we received a grant to focus on Latino outreach and outreach to the underserved communities in the rural areas. One of the goals is to have an education component. This is an evidence-based workshop,” said Yvette Saiz Primero, a family caregiver navigator.
The six-week series of workshops focused on giving caregivers a chance to communicate feelings and concerns, address challenging situations, and learn tools to avoid burnout.
“Making sure they knew what to do when they were overworked taking care of their loved one, we talked about solutions, finding solutions to any of their problems and kind more of a self-management,” said Gabriela Tapia, a health promotion coordinator.
It’s the first time the Southwest Idaho Area Agency on Aging and other of its partners offered the workshops in Spanish.
“AARP did a big survey in 2020 and found that Latinos typically do more caregiving and more burden caregiving. so, their financial stability is impacted because typically they must lessen their work hours or pay a lot of services out of pocket, not realizing there are resources. this program directly addresses that because we show people how to ask for help, how to communicate, how to look for resources,” Primero said.
Participants received a certificate for completing four out of the six workshops.
“It helped me to take care of myself and take care of the little baby, it really helped me a lot,” said Arselia Sanchez De Cardenas, who is taking care of a four-month-old baby and traveled from Wilder to attend the workshops.
The groups hope to continue to offer the Spanish workshops.
“As we've seen, there are people that are interested, that got a lot of and build relationships and friendships with people and feel they aren’t alone.”
“I feel we completed our goal, there is a big need. It was our first class and we were very successful and we hope to continue and send a message to the community this is done in English and Spanish,” Tapia said.
For information about the caregiving workshops or other resources, contact Southwest Idaho Area Agency on Aging at 208-898-7060.
