November is National Family Caregivers Month, a time to to thank, support, educate and empower family caregivers.
Day in and day out, 90 million family caregivers in the United States fulfill a vital role on their loved one's care team. No one else is in a better position to provide comfort and support, to advocate on behalf of the patient, and to ensure continuity of care.
At the Andre Sobel River of Life Foundation we are proud to celebrate the single parent caregivers and their families that we serve. In recognition of their vital role, we encourage you to consider one of the following ways that you can help a caregiver today:
1. Send a card of appreciation or a bouquet of flowers to brighten up a family caregiver's day.
2. Help a caregiver decorate their home for the holidays or offer to address envelopes for their holiday cards.
3. Offer comic relief! Purchase tickets to a local comedy club, give a caregiver your favorite funny movie to view, or provide them an amusing audio book to listen to while doing their caregiving activities.
4. Offer to prepare Thanksgiving dinner for a caregiving family in your community, so they can just relax and enjoy the holiday.
5. Encourage local businesses to offer a free service for family caregivers through the month of November.
If you do not know a particular caregiver to assist, consider this:
Make a donation to the Andre Sobel River of Life Foundation today, and we will put it to immediate use assisting a single parent of a catastrophically ill child.
Our mission is to keep the caregiver at the child's bedside by providing support for urgent financial needs. When you assist, you help ease the pain, lessen the load, and soften a crisis for a struggling single parent family. Your contribution will help relieve a family of their worries about unpaid rent, the threat of foreclosure, or the burden of bills for groceries, phone, or utilities during their child's medical crisis.
By caring for the caregiver we care for the child.
Valerie Sobel is the Founder and President of the Andre Sobel River of Life Foundation, named in honor of her son who died of a brain tumor at age 19. The mission of the foundation is to keep the caregiver at the child's bedside during catastrophic illness by assisting with urgent everyday expenses. www.andreriveroflife.org