PSGDC AND SAGE
UNITE
TO EXPAND OUTREACH

 

Diane and her partner Margaret have been together for 25 years and, with no other living family members, take care of each other. But when Diane discovered she had cancer and required immediate surgery, she didn’t know what to do. Margaret, who has mid-stage Alz-heimer’s disease, couldn’t be left alone; she tends to wander off and needs help with daily activities like dressing and bathing.

Enter the Park Slope Geriatric Day Center’s Family Caregiver Program, which was able to provide culturally competent support to Diane and Margaret in the form of individual counseling from an understanding social worker; homecare for Margaret during Diane’s surgery; and helpful referrals.

This assistance is part of our ser-vices to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) elders and caregivers, a component of our Family Caregiver Project. Our outreach efforts are well underway this summer! We are working in collaboration with Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE) to ensure that caregivers and elders in the community have access to appropriate services in a warm and accepting environment. We will continue to reach out to the general public as well as myriad organizations, individuals, and businesses throughout Brooklyn and Staten Island.

Maybe you saw us as we spread the word about our program to hundreds of people at the Brooklyn LGBT Pride Festival and Parade on June 12th, or as we disseminated information at the Seventh Heaven Street Fair on 7th Avenue in Park Slope on June 20th. We also held a productive Community Advisory Meeting and Supper on June 22nd to gather input from members of the Brooklyn community about how best to meet the needs of LGBT caregivers and elders. The supper yielded many valuable suggestions for future services, including legal networking and referrals, a hotline, a resource guide consisting of information for LGBT elders, and more.

If you are interested in receiving services or contributing ideas for enhancing our program, please contact Teresa Theophano, LGBT Caregivers Project Specialist, by email at ttheophano@psgdc.org or by phone at (718) 499-7701.

—Teresa Theophano

Taking It To City Hall

On May 16, 2004, PSGDC staff joined the
Council of Senior Centers and Services and
other members of the aging services workforce on the steps of City Hall to urge the city to provide overdue pay increases. City-funded salaries for workers in aging services have not had an
increase in five years.
Pictured above, PSGDC Associate Executive Director Christopher Nadeau speaks to
the crowd at the press conference.
Photo by Josephine Brown.

 

Hitting the Streets

April Pomerantz, Family Caregiver Project Social
Worker, and Josephine Brown, Manager of Adult Day
Services, staff the PSGDC table at Park Slope’s
Seventh Heaven Street Fair, June 20, 2004. Free copies
of the Brooklyn Caregiver’s Resource Guide were popular;
call or stop by the office if you would like one or more.
Photo by Ruth Benn.