Idaho

Commission on
Aging

Alzheimer's Services

Building Better Caregivers

Building Better Caregivers is a free, online workshop for caregivers of persons with Alzheimer's Disease or a related dementia living in Idaho, sponsored by the National Council on Aging.

Building Better Caregivers workshop can help you:

• Find practical ways to manage your own fatigue and stress

• Discover how to manage difficult care partner behaviors and feelings

• Make good decisions and future plans

• Learn what you need to do to improve your sleep, eat better, and stay active

Online workshop allows you to:

• Log on at your convenience

• Participate from any computer with an Internet connection

• Join a group up to 25 people in each workshop, with new sessions posted each week for six weeks

• Create a step-by-step action plan to help you feel better and be a better caregiver

*An evidence-based program developed by Stanford University.

More than 35 states now have statewide plans in place or officially in the works to deal with Alzheimer’s and other dementias. Idaho is not one of them. We need a plan to help assess and reduce the burden of this disease on our growing population of Alzheimer’s patients, their caregivers and our government. Do we have the right type and number of facilities and services in place? Are we making sure Idahoans have the best therapeutic and caregiving services available? Are we using taxpayer dollars effectively? A state plan will ensure this, and in the fall of 2010, a group of citizens formed the IAPG to bring such a plan about.

The IAPG is comprised of educators, researchers, administrators, service providers and other advocates. It is a project of Boise State University's Center for the Study of Aging, in conjunction with the Idaho Commission on Aging (ICOA). IAPG’s own steering committee includes numerous stakeholders, such as representatives from Idaho AARP and the national Alzheimer’s Association. Its members are committed to developing a comprehensive, realistic set of recommendations to meet this public health and financial challenge - a strategic plan that can be supported by our state legislators and our governor.