Caregiving Education

UW-Extension supports the following curricula for professional educators and family caregivers.

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• Adult Children and Aging Parents: Conversations Between Generations
  The UW-Extension has adapted the Iowa State University curriculum "Adult Children and Aging Parents: Conversations Between Generations", for Wisconsin. This curriculum focuses on the needs of whole families, and seeks to help families talk about and plan for changing needs in later life, increase family problem-solving skills and strengthen family relationships between generations. Adapted to reflect Wisconsin laws, "Adult Children and Aging Parents" helps participants explore questions about later-life legal, financial and housing needs and about understanding their family relationships. This curriculum can be taught in single-topic workshops or as an education series.
• Caregiving Relationships for People Who Care for Adults
  The UW-Extension partners with the University of Illinois Extension to offer a train-the-trainer workshop for professionals working with family caregivers. The curriculum focuses on reducing emotional pressures, and strengthening relationships between caregivers and care receivers. Using 15 one-page brochures, participants learn about loss, facing fear, family dynamics in distance caregiving, taking care of yourself, elder care services and other topics. The curriculum can be used with groups or individually.
• Elder Care and Work: Finding the Balance
  The UW-Extension partners with Bringing Elder Care Home, a consulting firm specializing in helping caregivers balance elder care and work, to offer education for family caregivers and professional trainers. A train-the-trainer seminar for caregivers who interact with workplace supervisors focuses on specific strategies to help caregivers balance caregiving and work. Topics include healthy caregiving, workplace strategies and the ABCs of elder care resources. Trainer kits include a Leader's Guide, PowerPoint presentation and sample hand-outs.
• Powerful Tools for Caregivers
  The UW-Extension partners with Legacy, Inc. a nonprofit aging institute, to offer a six-week course for caregivers of older adults with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other disabling conditions. The class helps caregivers build communication skills, lower stress, set goals, make tough decisions, and communicate with family members and medical providers. Participants use relaxation and planning tools while learning to cope with anger and guilt, access community resources and solve problems.
• What Every Adult Child Should Know: Protecting Your Retirement & Other Financial Information for Family Caregivers
  The University of Wisconsin-Extension has adapted the National Endowment for Financial Education program, "What Every Adjult Child Should Know: Protecting Your Retirement & Other Financial Information for Family Caregivers", for Wisconsin. The program was developed to help family caregivers understand the type of financial information and documents needed so they can perform their caregiving duties, while also thinking about their own future. The program is designed to help family caregivers and future caregivers understand their financial situations, how their finances will change, and how best to communicate about caregiving and financial issues with family members. This program is designed for family caregivers of older adults, but is also useful for individuals caring for a disabled or seriously ill family member. The worksheets for financial information help the caregiver as well to analyze their own financial situation in preparation for a time when they may need care themselves.
• Who Gets Grandma's Yellow Pie Plate
  Who Get's Grandma's Yellow Pie Plate was developed by University of Minnesota to help families make more informed decisions when transferring non-titled property to the next generation. Six key concepts taught include understanding the sensitivity of transferring personal property, determining what you want to accomplish, what "fair" means, identifying special objects to transfer, distribution options and consequences and managing conflict. The curriculum can be used as a short program with a 13 minute video or as long at a 2 hour program.