CaringKind kicked-off this spring with live television coverage of our TackleALZ NYC game on NY1 News and NY1 Noticias. Anchor Roger Clark interviewed players from the BruCrew and Blondetourage teams, as well as Candace Douglas, Director of Constituent Events. Coverage ran throughout the day. The Roosevelt Island Daily was also present, reporting on the game including several photos of the action.
This year’s Forget-Me-Not Gala was a record-breaking success thanks to Gala Chair Fred Hassan; Corporate Leadership Honoree, Allergan, and their Chairman and CEO Brent Saunders; emcee, CBS 2 Medical Reporter Dr. Max Gomez; and our 550 guests, who helped raise $1.8 million! New York Social Diary, New York Nonprofit Media, Black Tie International Magazine and Hamptons.com all featured coverage of the festivities.
Lou-Ellen Barkan continues to be a thought leader with a recent op-ed in the New York Daily News. Focused on the underfunding of the Department of the Aging and the impact on caregiving, she wrote, “It’s unconscionable that at a time when the needs of some of our most vulnerable citizens are growing that support for senior centers, case managers, respite programs and home care — all vital resources for caregivers — is not keeping up with the demand and has been entirely overlooked by the current administration.”
Lou-Ellen also advocates through her monthly column, “Care Chronicle,” which appears in about a dozen local newspapers across the boroughs, and offers ways to improve the day-to-day lives of caregivers. Recent topics have included Technology for Caregivers, as well as Summer Safety. The technology column featured the Balance: for Alzheimer’s Caregivers App, designed by the National Alzheimer’s Center, a division of Hebrew Home at Riverdale in partnership with CaringKind, which includes interactive caregiver communications, calendars, pill reminders, news updates, a medical record tracker, physician notification tool, and much more.
CaringKind also continues to be recognized for bringing Comfort Matters®, an innovative dementia care education program, to four New York City nursing homes. CaringKind’s Jed Levine who played an integral role in the Comfort Matters initiative, was quoted in PADONA, the journal associated with The American Society for Long Term Care Nurses, on how Comfort Matters revolutionizes palliative care for dementia patients.
Jed was also interviewed as an expert on the topic of wandering for a radio news piece on WNYC. “It Was the Scariest Night of My Life: When Seniors Go Missing in New York” was featured on the popular NPR show All Things Considered and examined how the NYPD and community organizations are addressing the growing population of seniors at risk for wandering.
CaringKind continues to touch caregivers in New York City’s many diverse communities through caregiving training programs and workshops, as well as our English, Spanish, and Chinese language Understanding Dementia seminars. Featured on more than 100 local events websites and calendars, these programs are extremely well attended. And, thanks to Weijing Shi, our incredible Chinese Outreach Manager, CaringKind was featured in a Chinese-language television program on Sinovision TV. The program was aired around Mother’s Day, and focused the day-to-day life of a mother/daughter caregiver relationship.
CaringKind rounded out the spring season with several terrific events and conferences that were featured across local events websites and calendars. The Charles Evans Lecture, “Here But Not Here — Learning to Live With Ambiguous Loss” and the conference for audiology professionals, “Hearing Loss, Dementia and Healthy Aging: Audiologist as Gatekeeper?” were both presented to sold-out houses. The inaugural Technology Fair piqued the interest of hundreds of clients and community partners wanting to know about the latest innovations for caregivers.