A good friend I’ll call Anna, is one of an estimated five to seven million “distance caregivers,” meaning they live 100 miles or more away from the person for whom they are caring.  For Anna, it means a monthly trip from Oakland to Philadelphia where her mother was admitted to a memory care center after a bad fall.  As the center’s name suggests, Anna’s mother suffers from dementia.  Like most caregivers, she is employed and is juggling the demands of work with caregiving.

Anna lives the statistics that I found in an article in the September 4, 2018 issue of the New York Times.  Like other distance caregivers, she puts in about a day a week helping with paying bills for her mother, making appointments, conferring with her providers, and keeping in touch with her mother via Skype/Facetime.  She has told me that not surprisingly, she has had to miss work and is thinking of going part-time to better manage the myriad of details associated with caregiving.  To make matters worse, she and her siblings don’t see eye-to-eye on how to manage their mother’s care, including how to finance various aspects of her medical care.

While she always puts on a “game face” when I ask how she’s doing, I am reminded of a finding from this article that compared to local caregivers, Anna and other distance caregivers suffer higher stress, more anxiety and feel less supported.

Anna has found three specific resources from Amazing Care that have helped her with caregiving.  She gave the Amazing Care debit card to the caregiver she hired in Philadelphia to pay for expenses for her mother.  She and the caregiver enjoy peace of mind in how the funds are used as Anna can determine the merchants where the card will work.  And Anna can check debit card spending via the internet at any time. 

Anna has used the “Resource” page on our website to identify resources specific to helping move her mother from her home to the memory care center.  Finally, Anna comes as often as her schedule permits to an Amazing Care Event to network with others in care giving roles and to learn from our featured speakers.   As Anna told me recently, that while caregiving can deplete a person emotionally, physically and financially, Amazing Care can be an amazing resource.

Here’s to your growing network!

~ Cora, CEO and Founder

p.s. Please follow us on Facebook and Twitter and join us at our upcoming events!