Library caters to caregivers
By Michelle Knight knight@theacorn.com

HELPING HANDS-Camarillo Health Care activity leader Linda Bartiromo helps Tony, a local senior, during a game of tabletop bowling at the Camarillo Health Care District.

Need to know the best way to help your disabled, elderly mother out of a wheelchair without hurting her? When should your dad, whose dementia is getting worse, be moved to a nursing facility? And how do you take care of yourself?

Help is on the way.

The Camarillo Health Care District expects to open a caregiver resource library by Oct. 21 at its offices at 3639 E. Las Posas Road in Camarillo. Caregivers will be able to borrow books, DVDs, videos and other materials that give specific information for various circumstances.

"Our caregiver population is really the backbone of how we care for seniors," said Sue Tatangelo, chief resource officer for the health care district. "We need to give them the tools to take care of themselves."

The library will provide information on where to call for respite care and how to combat caregiver burnout, for example.

Christine Voth of the Ventura County Area Agency on Aging, one of the agencies helping fund the library, said it will be a starting point for caregivers, who often don't know where to turn for information.

When it opens, the library will be the second of its kind in Camarillo. The Alzheimer's Association, Central Coast chapter also provides a library for caregivers.

"There's a very pressing need for a second library," said Julian Dean, Alzheimer's Association director of programs. "The challenge for understanding how to care for a person who's losing their brain is enormous."

Ventura County has as many as 13,000 people suffering from Alzheimer's or a related disease, he said, and most of them live at home with a spouse, family member, alone or in a community residence.

For baby boomers who face the dual demands of caring for their own families as well as their aging parents, who show signs of deteriorating physical and mental abilities, the library has particular significance. There, they'll be able to find "insights and help with how to deal with challenging situations," especially as diseases like Alzheimer's progress and become more complex, Dean said.

Perhaps the caregiver has a parent who won't take off certain clothes, fearful that an imaginary person will steal them, or refuses to wash his hair because of some imagined danger. When is it time to bring in a home care professional for help, or move the parent to an assisted living facility?

"You learn all this through some of the library materials," Dean said. "That's how important these libraries are for the 12,000 to 13,000 people (with some form of dementia) in this county. You can well imagine how valuable some of these resources can be."

In collaboration with the

Alzheimer's Association, the Camarillo Health Care District sponsors caregiver classes and support groups that meet twice a month.

The libraries complement them, Dean said.

For meeting times and dates, call the Camarillo Health Care District at (805) 388-1952.

Camarillo's Central Coast chapter of the Alzheimer's Association offers free coaching for caregivers.

To make an appointment, call (805) 485-5597.