In the Spotlight

Caregivers in Their Own Words

by Leah Eskenazi, MSW

The practice of writing in a journal or diary has been around a long time-- some of the earliest journal entries can be traced back to 56 AD in China, coincident with the development of paper. Today journaling is growing in popularity among family caregivers.

Women and men alike joined California's Caregiver Resource Centers (CRCs) and Maggie Marshall, workshop leader, for "A Space All Your Own: Using Your Link2Care Online Journal to Capture Your Caregiving Journey," for a journaling workshop in January. Maggie is the director of the Caregiver-to-Caregiver Network at Southern Caregiver Resource Center in San Diego. This successful telephone workshop held as a three-part class was attended by dozens of people across the state. Students were asked only to bring to class a desire to consider and then record their thoughts and feelings about the caregiving parts of their lives.

Participating was easy: Family caregivers simply picked up their phones and dialed into a toll-free conference call number to attend. That's right, they could be in their housecoat or sports coat, wearing slippers or heels, whatever was right for their telephone space! The majority of those who joined the class also logged into the Link2Care website where they could write in their online journal. Some recorded thoughts in paper journals. Link2Care is a California-based website and discussion group designed to support and provide useful information for those caring for a person living with some form of dementia.

The classes were held around lunch time to make it possible for both home-based and working caregivers to participate. Class evaluation results were very positive: 91% of those who completed the evaluation said the "workshop increased their skills to use a journal to record their thoughts and feelings." Of the same group, everyone (100%) said that the class was "useful" or "very useful" for them

The majority of family caregivers who participated in the class were spouses taking care of a husband or an adult daughter caring for a parent. Male caregivers—sons and husbands—also joined in and participated actively. In response to the evaluation question, "What was the most important thing that you came away with from this class?" a caregiver said, "I was excited to learn to journal. Before this class journaling was a chore for me. Doing it online makes a big difference. Also the suggestions of topics to journal helped me a lot. It was almost like getting permission to put certain feelings down."

At the class, Maggie offered an introduction to journaling, including a brief tutorial on the new online journaling tool. She offered writing tips and encouragement throughout the session, explaining that journaling allows many of us to clarify and organize our thoughts, express ourselves, (whether we are feeling negative or positive about the world), and feel connected to the world (whether anyone will read what we write or not).

We hope to offer this journaling class again next year, but please don't wait until then to give journaling a try. If you participate in Link2Care be sure to try out the e-journal. A number of free private journal tools are also available on the Internet. Check out:

Oprah Journal Landing

Journalscape

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