Your Proactive Caregiver Advocate: Dr. Cynthia Speaks!
Topic: A Caregiver Blow Close to Home
This blog will be short and sweet. But, first, I wanted to share with my wonderful followers that COVID-19 hit me square in the face. We lost our 49-year niece, June 3rd, 2021, in Toledo, Ohio, to this terrible virus(I’m being kind). While most of my topics center on older adults, senior care, care, and caregiving, as a nurse and educator, and a caregiver to my family, I discussed with my niece in early April the importance of eliminating the noise and let science and those with skills and expertise guide decision-making.
Like so many, the noise of the last 2-years have made decision-making, especially in the African American communities, complex and final, at least in their eyes. What do I say to you, because right now, I am broken? Let me leave you with this.
As your Proactive Caregiver Advocate, I care about you. I need not know you to care. I spent many years in school to gain knowledge to help others, researched topics that are grounded in evidence-based practices. Solid research saves lives. I have heard the term “guinea pig.” We all are guinea pigs. If you did not grow your own food and relied on someone else to do it…Humm! If you are taking medication that said will lower your blood pressure and do not know its genesis…Humm!
My heart hurt when those who trusted me did not grasp the severity of COVID-19, and nothing I said made the difference. There is an empty chair at our table. I will never know if it had to be this way. My niece chose not to be vaccinated. COVID has no respect for a person. Please consider getting your vaccination, if not for you, them for those you say you love.
