“A Caregiver’s Toolkit” offers tips, local resources to help manage challenges of providing care for a loved one

If you help an older adult with things like picking up groceries, driving to doctor appointments, paying bills or even getting dressed, you are a caregiver.

Family caregiving impacts the physical and mental health, finances, career and family and social relationships of the caregiver. To help caregivers manage the challenges  of providing care for loved ones, the San Antonio Area Foundation is releasing a free guidebook, “A Caregiver’s Toolkit: What You Need to Know When Caring for Someone.”

The 60-page  resource guide is produced by the Area Foundation’s Successful Aging and Living in San Antonio initiative (SALSA), which seeks to create a community where older adults are respected, thrive and live connected lives. The  toolkit includes guidance for aging in place, legal and financial planning, mental health, dementia, long-term care, self-care and more.

The toolkit also includes artwork  provided by Bihl Haus GO! Arts program participants at Grace Place Alzheimer’s Activity Centers.

Copies are available for free online at www.SAAFdn.org  and a limited number of print copies are available also through SALSA partner agencies.

“Our SALSA partners created this guide because a better-informed caregiver enhances quality of life of both the person receiving care and the caregiver,” said Marjie French, CEO of the San Antonio Area Foundation. “So much rests on the shoulders of the family caregiver, therefore we’re trying to help make caregivers aware of and have access to the resources available in the community.”

SALSA was created by the Area Foundation to increase leadership, collaboration and funding to ensure older adults have access to necessary services, information and support systems. The group is comprised of a multi-stakeholder, multi-sector steering committee and three focused workgroups, including Transportation, Housing, and the Caregiver and Socialization Workgroup, which produced the guide.

For more information about the Area Foundation and its work, visit www.saafdn.org or call (210) 225-2243.