Fearless Caregiver Conference returns to Delray Beach on Thursday

Gary Barg has been advocating for family caregivers for nearly three decades — and never more so than in the extra-challenging era of COVID-19.

He’s made it his life’s work — first by founding Today’s Caregiver magazine in 1995 and then by traveling the country to help family caregivers understand how they can best take care of their ill loved ones — and themselves.

And now, after a nearly three-year pandemic-induced hiatus, Barg’s Fearless Caregiver Conference is returning to Palm Beach County — specifically, the South County Civic Center in Delray Beach — at 10 a.m. Thursday.

How it all started

Barg, 66, began his journey as one of the nation’s foremost caregiver advocates innocently enough. The North Miami Beach native was living in Atlanta and earning a living as a videographer when he returned to South Florida for a month to help his mother with the caregiving of his ailing grandparents.

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As Barg explains it, “My mother had become what I now call a ‘serial caregiver’ — first for my father, who died from bone cancer, and by the time I came down, for my elderly grandparents.”

Barg’s grandfather was in the early stages of dementia.

Barg couldn’t believe how hectic — and exhausting — that month was.

Shuttling to and from countless doctors’ appointments.

Untold hours spent on the telephone going back and forth with health insurance companies and Medicare.

A couple of late-night trips to local emergency rooms.

Just before Barg was scheduled to return to Atlanta, he told his mom that he was thankful to have been in town to help her during this “crazy period.”

Barg’s mom stared back at him blankly, having no idea what “crazy period” her son was referring to — and that told him all he needed to know: “It was like that for her all the time.”

That’s when Barg made the life-changing decision: He’d immediately move back to South Florida to help full-time with his grandparents’ care.

Helping others

In addition to navigating a pre-internet health-care system for his grandparents, Barg also began answering healthcare and insurance questions for his grandparents’ elderly neighbors.

Figuring that there had to be publications dedicated to just this kind of information, Barg searched far and wide to find them — only to discover that there weren’t any.

“So, with all of the knowledge that Mom and I had accumulated, I decided to start Today’s Caregiver to fulfill a need that wasn’t being met,” says Barg.

In those early days, the publication was bimonthly (it’s now an annual) and its mission was to let the nation’s tens of millions of family caregivers know they’re not alone and that resources were available to help them.

According to the Caregiving in the U.S. 2020 report published by the National Alliance for Caregiving and the AARP Public Policy Institute, 53 million Americans are providing unpaid care for relatives and/or friends.

Other studies that Barg has seen led him to believe that number is likely much higher — “more like 67 million to 70 million. The National Family Caregiver Association says one of the biggest challenges that all family caregivers usually have is in ‘self-identifying.’”

Even if you go with the smaller number, that still means one in five American adults are family caregivers.

Another challenge is in getting family caregivers to prioritize their own health. According to agingcare.com, some 30% of family caregivers die before the person they’re caring for does.

During the first 20-plus years of publication, Barg would give away the magazine for free to hospitals, doctors’ offices, nursing homes, rehab facilities and the like. These days — and especially since the pandemic — Barg has put the focus on the Today’s Caregiver website, which you can visit at caregiver.com.

Fearless Caregiver Conference

The popularity of Today’s Caregiver led Barg to travel the nation holding free symposiums for family caregivers called Fearless Caregiver Conferences.

Prior to the pandemic, he says he had hosted 287 in-person conferences (and 12 virtual ones during 2020-21) and that “I learned something new every time.”

That’s because, in addition to the expert speakers he lines up at these fun, friendly informal get-togethers, attendees are encouraged to speak to one another and the group as a whole to share their experiences and knowledge.

“Over the years we’ve found that much of what family caregivers face — regardless of what their loved one is suffering from — is universal,” says Barg.

On Thursday, where attendees will be served lunch, Barg anticipates that much of the conversation will revolve around the challenges that family caregiving in the era of COVID-19 has posed for everyone.

But he also predicts that topics he never could have anticipated will come up — and constructively addressed.

Barg says he’s especially excited about Thursday because he’s missed the in-person interaction.

“I’ve dedicated my life to this cause,” he says. “And now I look forward to spending the rest of my days doing what I love most: talking to, sharing with, supporting, and learning from the real healthcare experts in the world — family caregivers.”

IF YOU GO 

What: Fearless Caregiver Conference.

When: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday

Where: South County Civic Center, 16700 Jog Road in Delray Beach. 

Admission: Free for family caregivers; $25 for professional caregivers; lunch will be served to all attendees. 

For more information: Call 877-829-2734, email conference@caregiver.com or visit caregiver.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Fearless Caregiver Conference returns to in-person format in Delray