Register now: In-person Rochester forum to focus on isolation facing younger caregivers

Staff reports
·2 min read
Maggie Ornstein, 44, caresses her mother Janet's head after braiding her hair in their home. Janet Ornstein, 77, suffered a cerebral aneurysm in 1996 when Maggie was 17-years-old and suffered cognitive impairment. As a result, she has required constant caregiving ever since. Maggie, who holds a Phd. and three masters degrees, has spent her entire adult life living with and caring for her mother.

The Democrat and Chronicle invites working-age caregivers and others interested in the topic of caregiver isolation to an in-person forum co-hosted by the Alzheimer’s Association of Rochester and the Finger Lakes Region.

The forum begins at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, May 4, at the Martin Luther King Lodge, 353 Court St. in Manhattan Square in Rochester. Doors open at 4 p.m. Following the forum, there will be food and time for networking from 6 to 6:30 p.m.

To register, call 800.272.3900 or find the link in the online version of this story. Pre-registration is required.

Register now: Young caregiver forum in Rochester

This discussion will present an open dialogue about the isolation caregivers face and creative solutions to that isolation. It will help fuel solutions-oriented news coverage and social media posts during 2023 highlighting the importance of providing more answers for persons seeking to balance caregiving responsibilities with work, family and community obligations.

The D&C’s young caregiving project is sponsored by the New York and Michigan Solutions Journalism Collaborative, of which the newspaper is a member.

For the past few years, news organizations, educational institutions and nonprofits in the Collaborative members have been vetting potential solutions for caregivers in a Great Lakes region and a country where caregiving resources are in short supply.

The lack of support for those who provide care is a significant unmet need in America and a reason many caregivers face financial, physical and mental health burdens, with isolation playing a key role in all three areas.

To further its commitment to caregiving solutions coverage, the D&C and the Collaborative have created a full-time caregiving solutions journalist role to partner with Collaborative sites in Rochester, Buffalo and Detroit for 2023. This journalist, Justice Marbury of Rochester, is pursuing innovative ways to engage younger caregivers through social media as well as traditional media channels.  Whether they be students, young professionals or parents taking care of their own parents, the heavy loads carried by younger caregivers are often invisible to society at large.

Marbury will be part of the May 4 forum and will interview participating local caregivers.

Joining the discussion:

  • Facilitator: Sarah Taddeo, New York State Team editor

  • Data expert: Jack Rosenberry, a former St. John Fisher College journalism professor who presently is the Collaborative’s data journalism coordinator. He will discuss survey findings regarding the financial concerns facing caregivers.

  • Interviewer: Justice Marbury, caregiving solutions reporter

  • Caregivers: A few people including Carol Thompson, who currently cares for her partner.

  • Memory care expert: Carol Podgorski, associate professor of psychiatry in the University of Rochester Medical Center’s Institute for the Family.

Please visit alz.org/CRF to find community resources related to caregiving.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Isolation facing younger caregivers to be topic of Rochester NY forum