Family Caregivers Unite! is in online talk radio show of international scope, that Amy MacFarlane is passionately active and very much an advocate for. It reaches out to and connects family caregivers and their communities and community partners. It’s social purpose is to provide family caregivers and people and organizations with trustworthy, understandable, insightful and informed discussion on topics of importance to family caregiving, a sector of growing importance in North America and beyond.
Listen to some of the interviews in which Recreational Respite has been a guest:
May 10, 2011: Recreation Therapy and Family Caregivers
Amy MacFarlane explains recreation therapy and talks about the challenges that it helps with. She describes the special needs and health conditions for which she recommends recreation therapy. She explains why and how recreation therapy helps persons and their family caregivers meet the challenges that these conditions create. She describes some real-life examples.
August 2, 2011: Help through caregiver-support programs for Alzheimer’s disease
Dr. Linda Teri is a Member of the Medical & Scientific Advisory Council of the Alzheimer’s Association. She’s Professor of Psychosocial & Community Health at the University of Washington. She speaks with Amy about Alzheimer’s disease. They discuss real-life examples of caregiver-support programs that helped family caregivers meet the challenges of Alzheimer’s disease. They discuss the ways in which the programs support aging at home and say how well community-based professionals, such as nurses and physicians, and the wider public understand the family caregiving challenges of Alzheimer’s disease and the role of caregiver-support programs.
December 13, 2011: Services for Supporting Seniors’ Family Caregivers Directly
Raymond Applebaum, CEO of Peel Senior Link and Amy, tell us how they came to be interested in services for seniors and their family caregivers. They describe the services their organizations offer. They explain what’s meant by supporting family caregivers directly and the types of direct supports, including direct pay, most likely to be useful to family caregivers. They discuss the challenges in providing direct support to family caregivers, including the meeting costs.
May 8, 2012: Gentle Persuasive Approaches Program for Professional Caregivers–Family Caregiver Perspectives
Dr. Lori Schindel Martin is Associate Professor, Associate Director, School of Nursing, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada, and Chair, Gentle Persuasive Approaches Advisory Committee speaks to Amy explain gentleness in caring, and what has been learned from its application in the training of healthcare professionals and family caregivers.