Community Service - Supporting Caregivers

Author Unknown. (2010). People Caregiver [JPG].
     Retrieved April 13, 2012, from: http://
     eaicareprovider.files.wordpress.com/2010/
     04/people_caregiver.jpg

The ALES 204 course was the only CSL project I took in the University of Alberta for now. As the term approached its end, my partner Rebecca Saul and I finished our work on the project and made a conclusion to the whole term. CSL stands for Community Service Learning, which is a program that integrates the volunteering in the community as a course component. The organization we did our placement with was Alberta Caregivers Association (ACGA), which supports the family caregivers and cares for the health and wellness of them. And we chose to work on the topic “preparing a meeting with health care team”. I wondered what I could learn from this project at the beginning of the term, and when I finished, I was surprised by the knowledge and experiences I gained.

To start the project, we did research on the topic, and obtained some suggestions on the websites of some non-profit organizations. We created some questions for the caregivers and health care professionals based on the suggestions, but we found that the health care professionals were too busy to attend our interview. So we changed the interview to questionnaires. After we collected the responses, we summarized the information into various forms of social media such as Tweets, tip sheet, and PowerPoint for ACGA to use on their website.

Author Unknown. (2009). Health Care [JPG]. Retrieved
     April 13, 2012, from: http://associateinc.com/images/
     healthcare02.jpg

During the project, I learned that communication is a two-way process. I need to consider the availability of other people, especially when I want to obtain information from them. The health professionals are very busy, so I need to adjust my ways to communicate with them. For example, we changed the interview to questionnaire first, but then I received the email from my friend saying that the questionnaire could take hours to fill out, and the health professionals did not have time for it either. So I changed the questionnaire according to their needs by adding some potential options to the questions based on the most popular suggestions I found on the Internet.

One thing I enjoyed most during my placement was the dinner we had in the organization. It was a workshop for dealing with the difficulties in family conversations, and I think it was very effective to have a workshop in the form of dinner, because dinner made the learning process more relaxing and enjoyable. Besides, people could get better chance to interact with each other during the dinner, and the conversation could be easily open while enjoying the food. During the dinner, I got to know about other caregivers and social workers, who devoted their time on making a difference in other people’s life. I found that the communication between caregivers helped them learn from other people’s experiences, and provided support to each other during their caregiving journey.

Even though there was a large amount of work and I had to take the bus for 40 minutes to reach the organization from the University, I was satisfied about the practical knowledge I obtained. Since my mother is a caregiver as well, I’m looking forward to using the knowledge I learned to help her.