Caregiver massage program relaunches in new Sunderland space

The Greenfield Recorder, January 27, 2022
By Chris Larabee

SUNDERLAND — After the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted The Care Collaborative’s newly launched massage program for in-home health aides, the organization is now relaunching the program in its new space in Sunderland.

The Giving Back Massage Therapies program, which is located at 267 Amherst Road, Suite 3, offers full-price massages to the public, which in turn subsidizes discounted massages for in-home health aides that are members of the organization’s Caregiver Program. Public massages are $40 for 30 minutes and $60 for an hour, while health aides can pay $15 for 30 minutes and $25 for an hour…. Read the rest on the Recorder Website: CLICK HERE.

An Offer of Care for Caregivers

The Montague Reporter, November 11, 2021,
By Lee Wicks

SUNDERLAND – While many people stayed safely at home during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare workers and home health caregivers caring for the elderly continued to provide their services every day. In response, the Care Collaborative in Sunderland (formerly known as the Tripp Memorial Foundation) is offering much-needed comfort and restoration to direct care professionals with the Giving Back Massage Therapies Program.

“Caregivers may neglect their own needs and become physically and emotionally depleted, because the focus of their attention and energy is on the health and wellbeing of those they care for,” said director Emma Golden. “As a result, direct care workers have some of the highest on-the-job injury and turnover rates of any industry.” Massages offered… Read more: https://montaguereporter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/November-11-2021.pdf

With home-care needs rising, professional caregivers find themselves overworked and underpaid

By ANDY CASTILLO
@AndyCCastillo

Tuesday, July 10, 2018
HADLEY MA

To make ends meet, Helen O’Gorman, a full-time certified nursing assistant at Springfield-based O’Connell Care at Home, also picks up private home-care clients and runs a cleaning business, logging between 60 and 70 hours of labor among the three jobs each week.

On any given day, she’s addressing complicated medical issues, comforting anxious family members, preparing meals, picking up prescriptions, shopping for groceries, helping with personal tasks like showering — and cleaning houses.

It can be difficult and stressful, but O’Gorman, 57, of Buckland, says she likes working with people in need.

If CNA’s relied on just one job, “we’d all be broke,” O’Gorman said one recent day, sitting on a sunny deck with Georgene Zimmerman, 89, of Greenfield. Zimmerman receives 24 hour care through O’Connell Care at Home.

With them was Ella Arial, 62, of Gill, another CNA. The two caregivers paused between their shifts with Zimmerman to talk about their jobs.

“You have to do a bartending job, or a waitressing job, to be a CNA. It’s never going to make you financially independent,” O’Gorman said. “And you need to worry about burnout, too.”

Arial said that she works about 60 hours each week, exclusively caring for Zimmerman, to earn a living wage.

“Honestly, you cannot live on a 40-hour week salary doing this job,” she said. “There’s a lot of turnover. A lot of people who go into this work find out they don’t have the heart for it. If you don’t have the heart, you won’t stay.”.... Read the rest at the gazettenet.com.

New S. Deerfield Thrift Store Has a Bigger Mission

By ANDY CASTILLO
Recorder Staff

Friday, March 23, 2018
DEERFIELD MA

SOUTH DEERFIELD — Those behind a new thrift store moving into an open storefront on North Main Street beside Jerry’s Place want more than secondhand clothing sales.

“Our mission is to improve the quality of life of elders and caregivers,” said Susan Pratt, a Shelburne resident and director of Tripp Memorial Foundation, a nonprofit behind the Giving Circle Thrift Shop, the first of its kind, scheduled to open April 7 in South Deerfield’s village center.

Pratt sat behind a table in the sun-filled space Friday morning. Around her, a half-dozen volunteers cleaned the floor and organized donations onto clothing racks.

“Our goal is to keep costs low enough to benefit caregivers, but high enough to make money,” Pratt said. “As you can see looking around, everything here is donated — the racks, the shelves.”... Read the rest at the recorder.com.