|
Introduction and Invitation
by Dr. E.
Ayn Welleford, Co-Chair, Education Core, VACAPI
With family caregiving
accounting for 80% of all long-term care and over 740,402
caregivers in Virginia providing 793 billion hours of care,
we are facing a major challenge that will only expand with
the projected growth of the aging population. Virginia
Department for the Aging's Commissioner, Julie Christopher,
indicated during a meeting of December 2006, that one of
the most
important issues in resolving this challenge is to bring
together every organization that has an interest in the
issue and work together, as a united front.
With this as a
preamble, we implement Commissioner Julie Christopher's direction
by initiating a new dynamic community for Virginia
caregivers, dedicated to learning, sharing and formulating
concrete solutions to the wide scale of problems relating to
caregiving. Developed as a set of topic-driven
forums and anchored in monthly newsletters and live
discussions, this new platform will serve to report on the
latest scientific findings, to promote learning and debate,
to speed the dissemination of new ideas and create an
effective dialogue across disciplines, industries,
organizations and geographic areas.
One of the
distinctive features of this free-for-all community would be
its approach to discussing specific topics, which,
effectively, would parallel the caregiver's perspective with
the one of the health professional, support service
professional, etc., as well as your very own. By
complementing these angles on the same topic with live
discussions led by top researchers and clinicians in the
field, we realize a multi-dimensional library of
interrelated debates, solutions and perspectives.
The Education
Core of VACAPI - in charge with editing this virtual
community - is comprised of academic experts, professionals
in the field of support services as well as caregivers who
work together to ensure a high-quality of information and
services. Should you wish to become involved with this
group, we want to hear from you! Just drop us a quick
line at
virtualcenter@alzpossible.org.
We invite all of
you out there to join our forums, subscribe to our monthly
newsletter and learn with us about care strategies,
community resources, family issues as well as local and
regional resources.
This online community does not endorse any specific product
or scientific approach.
top |
A NEW PLATFORM FOR VIRGINIA FAMILY CAREGIVERS
