Free One-on-One Caregiver Support Available at JFS
Thanks to a grant from Trellis, JFS continues to offer free one-on-one caregiver support to help caregivers across the income spectrum.
JFS caregiver coaches work with family members virtually or in person to guide them in making changes to improve everyday life at home; whether by promoting better self-care or by offering tips to deal with diagnosis-related behaviors. They also work directly with people in the early stage of their disease to plan for their own future.
Caregiver support includes but is not limited to:
- Partner to develop an action plan based on individual or family needs, values, and goals,
- Provide disease education and referral to community resources.
JFS Senior Services Supervisor Bonnie Jaffe leads this free service. Bonnie is a registered nurse with many years of hospital experience prior to joining JFS in 2008. In her role at JFS, Bonnie provides caregiver coaching, family consultations, and leads the JFS grief and caregiver support groups. She is also a certified instructor for Powerful Tools for Caregivers, Reach Community for Caregivers, and Dementia Friends presenter. Bonnie is trained by Honoring Choices of MN to assist people in completing advance care directives.
Her caregiver expertise comes from her education, work experience and personal experience. Bonnie cared for her mother-in-law, her husband, and is now caring for her mother. “To provide the best possible care for a loved one, caregivers often sacrifice their own physical and emotional needs,” said Bonnie. “The experiences involved with providing care can strain even the most capable person. The resulting feelings of anger, anxiety, sadness, isolation, exhaustion—and then guilt for having these feelings—can exact a heavy toll.”
To take advantage of free one-on-one caregiver support, contact Bonnie via email at bjaffe@jfssp.org or by phone at (651) 497-8248.