The 2019 Care4u Conference has come and gone. The conference is dedicated to caretakers of all stripes – you don’t need to be employed as a caretaker in order to participate. This conference is put on every year and we wanted to take a moment here to talk about it in order to inspire anyone reading this to attend in the future. If you’ve ever had to act as a caretaker for your loved one, or if you’re currently acting as a caretaker, you will find that the presentations are insightful and the presenters are empathic. The conference always has a little something for everyone.
The Alzheimer Society of Manitoba, kind people that they are, have posted the PowerPoint Presentations from the conference to freely access online. While the presentations alone won’t necessarily have the same oomph as you get when you’re there in the flesh, they are full of useful information and they’ll give you a sense of whether or not the conference is right for you so you can plan for next year.
Let’s break down, for a moment, the structure of the conference. It’s a one-day affair that begins with an opening presentation. This year, it was a lovely discussion about resilience and self-compassion. As caretakers, we might tend to put our needs aside in order to care for the needs of our loved ones so it’s good to remind ourselves of the importance and value of self-care. After that, there were four concurrent sessions and you chose one presentation to attend. The four this year were on topics ranging from person-centered care to handling income tax and finances.
In the afternoon, when lunch was over, there were another four concurrent sessions ranging in topics from housing for people with dementia to tackling caregiver guilt. The conference ended with a heartfelt and entertaining discussion on the power of humour and how it can help caregivers and the people they love.
The Care4u conference is powerful. The world of caregiving can often feel lonely and the conference is a reminder that you are not alone. When you find yourself surrounded by people like you, who professionally or personally, have decided to dedicate a good portion of their lives to caring for others, you find yourself in good company with empathic people who have been through situations that are similar to your own – people with novel solutions to problems, interesting stories to tell, and hearts of gold.
Here at Partners for Home – home care winnipeg, we’re proud to promote events like the Care4u conference. We know that caring for a loved one isn’t a one-person affair. It’s best done as a community and we’ll do whatever we can to foster that sense of community. We’re also here to help you and your loved one benefit from our help. Get in contact with us and we can go over the services that we offer. Our care services are extremely flexible so we will always help you where and when you need us.
