When a major long-term health problem strikes an individual, the effects are soon felt by friends and loved-ones.
Whether it’s paralysis or muscle impairment from a stroke, or memory loss and personality changes related to Alzheimer’s disease, almost everyone eventually seeks guidance about coping with the changed circumstances.
Frequently, the resource of choice is a support group that deals with a specific condition. Through the sharing of questions, stories, sources of information and assistance, and friendly empathy, members gain strength from one another.
It is just that sort of strength in numbers that C.C. Young Senior Center, 4829 W. Lawther, is hoping to foster with two new support groups. Both groups met for the first time in June.
A support group for stroke survivors, their care-givers and relatives meet at 11:30 a.m., the third Monday of each month. Working with the North Texas Stroke Survivors Association, C.C. Young has recruited two nurses as facilitators. One nurse works with the stroke survivors, and the other with relatives and care-givers.
“We want to help people become more at ease with themselves and be supported by others in the community who have similar problems and needs,” says Linda Rodgers, director of services for the C.C. Young Senior Center.
The stroke survivors support group may eventually become a new chapter of the North Texas Stroke Survivors Association, Rodgers says.
A support group for the care-givers and relatives of Alzheimer’s disease patients and people afflicted with related disorders such as memory loss, senility and dementia meets at 7 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month. Facilitators for this group are two women whose husbands are Alzheimer’s disease patients. Their programs will be conducted with assistance from the Alzheimer’s Association.
“This is a need we have seen in the community, and we want to try to do something about it,” Rodgers says.
“This disease can be a real challenge for care-givers, because the patients often have little grasp of the present but live in the past. The sharing of every-day problems and solutions can be a big help for care-givers.”
C.C. Young is a non-profit, multi-service retirement community with about 600 residents. It was founded in 1922 and was located near Methodist Hospital until 1960, when the current campus was constructed near White Rock Lake.
For more information, call 214-827-8080.
