Voic­es of Caregivers

February 18, 2026

Car­ing for a loved one can be a tru­ly reward­ing expe­ri­ence. It is also dif­fi­cult work, and can be excep­tion­al­ly tough to nav­i­gate with­out train­ing or sup­port. Care­givers pro­vide valu­able ser­vice not only to their loved ones, but to their communities. 

In cel­e­bra­tion of Nation­al Care­givers Day on Feb­ru­ary 20^th, 2026, real care­givers shared their care­giv­ing jour­neys and how they’ve found sup­port to nav­i­gate the evolv­ing needs of their loved ones and themselves.

Con­nect­ing Fam­i­ly Mem­bers with Local Care

“I am so thank­ful to KYC for pro­vid­ing a care­giv­er to my moth­er who has demen­tia. I live out of state and appre­ci­ate the care and atten­tion my moth­er receives.” – Michele

Pro­vid­ing Respite for Caregivers

“Wow! I am SO thank­ful! KYC real­ly came in a clutch for me at a time when I real­ly need­ed it for my two par­ents, and I’m still work­ing. The help was a won­der­ful break, hav­ing the respite ser­vice. Also, it’s a great ben­e­fit to have coun­sel­ing sup­port from my Care­giv­er Spe­cial­ist.” — Anonymous

“I’m the moth­er of our almost 42-year-old son. I don’t have to explain how hard it is to take care of a per­son with a dis­abil­i­ty every day. 

Any form of help means so much, espe­cial­ly when you get old­er and you don’t have the same strength and patience. That’s why I appre­ci­ate my Care­giv­er Spe­cial­ist from Ken­neth Young Cen­ter. She always tries to help. She calls me often ask­ing how I’m doing and how she can help.

Thanks to her effort, I got such need­ed respite hours. These hours are real­ly a big help to orga­nize my not-so-easy life. I think that the world will be nicer if there are more peo­ple like her. Thank you.“ – Alicja

Nav­i­gat­ing Evolv­ing Needs

“Although I con­tin­ue to take care of my hus­band the best I can, since he has a move­ment dis­or­der that can lead to demen­tia, every­thing is very difficult.

My hus­band is much taller than me, I used to be able to use all of my strength to lift him up and put him in and out of the car by myself for doc­tor appoint­ments or run­ning errands, and into the show­er chair in the tub by myself, but I can’t solo, any­more. He also acci­den­tal­ly fell twice at home and need­ed surgery. 

I get very stressed and wor­ried he will fall again, but the respite ser­vices KYC pro­vides for me is so need­ed, as I’m old­er now. The lady from respite who helps me do a two-per­son lift is so valu­able to me because she helps me lift him. I am very pleased with her help. The four hours a week helps me and I appre­ci­ate it all. 

It is also very help­ful when I talk for coun­sel­ing time with my Care­giv­er Spe­cial­ist. She is a great lis­ten­er. She also helps me calm down when I’m wor­ried and stressed about my hus­band. She also helps me prob­lem-solve and always think pos­i­tive­ly to get me through hard times and know I can count on her to help me when I call her and when she calls to check on me. Respite and coun­sel­ing are SO help­ful for me and are such impor­tant ser­vices and well-need­ed for all of us.“ — Anonymous

Learn­ing to Under­stand Dementia

“I am respon­si­ble for the care of my spouse. We’ve been mar­ried for five decades, in a very inde­pen­dent mar­riage: he has trav­eled inter­na­tion­al­ly to dozens of coun­tries for his career, I have worked in men­tal health, raised our fam­i­ly, and been very involved in our Dio­cese. Ini­tial­ly, I did­n’t see my hus­band’s ear­ly symp­toms of demen­tia. He spoke mul­ti­ple lan­guages flu­ent­ly and did­n’t seem to be los­ing skills. I dis­missed oth­er signs? Since I had grad­u­ate degrees in psy­chol­o­gy, I thought I could han­dle our problems.

After almost two years of bat­tling with my hus­band, end­less frus­tra­tion, an ulcer, and dis­cov­er­ing not only had I devel­oped high blood pres­sure, but so had our dog and cat! I sought help at Ken­neth Young Cen­ter. We need­ed help. I had to find new answers, my knowl­edge was­n’t the right wheel­house to guide me. From my first ses­sion with my Care­giv­er Spe­cial­ist, I start­ed to see a dif­fer­ent per­spec­tive to my hus­band’s behav­ior. Her edu­ca­tion, kind­ness, and guid­ance have taught me empa­thy for the fright­en­ing world my spouse faces with demen­tia. The more I learn, the more appro­pri­ate­ly I respond to his needs.

My hus­band and I have a long jour­ney through demen­tia. I have so much more to under­stand for both of us. Thank you, KYC, and espe­cial­ly to my Care­giv­er Spe­cial­ist. Your Savvy Care­givers class should be manda­to­ry for all of us who get ​“a diag­no­sis.” It’s a sur­vival plan for the future. I know I am not a nat­ur­al care­giv­er, but you give me hope I can do this.

Thank you, KYC! I am so infi­nite­ly grate­ful for Senior Ser­vices! — Carrie

Step­ping in to a Care­giv­ing Role

“Our life began to change a few years ago when we were told that my wife had a ver­sion of demen­tia. About eight or ten months ago, the dis­ease became much more aggres­sive and took a toll on my wife’s phys­i­cal, cog­ni­tive, and men­tal health. She did not under­stand what was hap­pen­ing to her; and she could no longer do many of the things for her­self and for oth­ers that she had done for decades; and some­one had to pitch in to man­age those things. I quick­ly under­stood that the ​‘some­one’ was me. And while I thought of myself as a hus­band, I soon learned that I had become some­thing else – a ​‘care­giv­er.’

I quick­ly dis­cov­ered that being a care­giv­er was a com­plex, impor­tant, and exhaust­ing role. I need­ed to learn more about demen­tia, and I need­ed help if I was going to be any good at care­giv­ing. There­after, I began to seek it out. I first turned to my village’s Nurs­ing and Senior Ser­vices pro­gram to seek guid­ance. I got plen­ty of help and infor­ma­tion — includ­ing a sug­ges­tion that I head to Ken­neth Young Cen­ter. When I got to KYC, I was warm­ly wel­comed when I told my ​‘sto­ry.’ To my sur­prise I learned that KYC had a boat­load of pro­grams and ser­vices that were ​‘right on point for our needs.’ From that day onward, my wife and I have tak­en advan­tage of some of them; and we will like­ly become more engaged with oth­ers as time goes by. 

I take advan­tage of care­giv­er coun­sel­ing from a KYC Care­giv­er Spe­cial­ist and am enrolled in a ​‘Savvy Care­giv­er’ class taught by anoth­er KYC Care­giv­er Spe­cial­ist. In addi­tion, my wife and I have enjoyed par­tic­i­pat­ing in the month­ly ​‘Mem­o­ry Café’ pro­gram – which offers an impor­tant social­iza­tion oppor­tu­ni­ty for my wife; and we both mix it up and share expe­ri­ences with oth­er folks who are in the same sit­u­a­tion as we are. We were also able to ben­e­fit from a mod­est, but immense­ly help­ful, respite funds that were applied to the costs of bring­ing pro­fes­sion­al care­givers into our home for a few hours each week. 

The ​‘bot­tom line?’ Our com­mu­ni­ty is incred­i­bly lucky to have KYC in it. It is a valu­able resource — and those who are care­givers for loved ones know that very well. “ — Anonymous

Con­nect with our Care­giv­er Resource Center

Learn more about the class­es men­tioned above, and call our Care­giv­er Resource Cen­ter for more infor­ma­tion or to con­nect with the com­pre­hen­sive sup­port that’s avail­able to care­givers at 847−524−8800 ext. 124.

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