The Care Line (863) 603-9110

• 9 AM – 5 PM
• Monday through Friday

Connects caregivers to vital information and community resources that offer assistance and guidance. Simply phone if you have questions about adult day care, deaf/hearing services, adaptive equipment repair, financial aid, legal issues, lending medical equipment, low-income prescription aid, memory diagnosis centers, professional homecare agencies, locating a support group, finding a hospice, assisted living facilities, retirement communities, Veteran’s Caregiver Benefits or other caregiver’s questions.

Support Groups

• Caring for Your Parents, an ongoing monthly support group open to the general public.  Meets the third Tuesday of each month from 6:30 PM until 7:30 PM at Valencia Hills Health and Rehabilitiation Cneter, 1350 Sleepy Hills Road, Lakeland, FL.  Please call to make reserviations, 8-6 603-9110.

Caregiver Classes

 Confused? Frustrated? Overwhelmed? Not sure what you know and don’t know? Caregiving Classes have several modules that address common caregiving problems.

• Learning All About it – General Overview
• It Takes Two – Changes in Communication and Relationships
• Lifestyle Adjustments – Strategies for Safety and Change
• Assisting with Personal Care
• Medical Management – Tricks of the Trade
• What About Me? Taking Care of Yourself
• Navigating the Maze – How to Find Programs and Services
• Comfort Care – Treatment and Legal Decisions
• Alzheimer’s and Dementia Training

Workshops

• Project Mend, Chronic Pain Management
• 6 week workshop — $ 40.00

While curing chronic pain may not be possible, understanding more about it and how to best manage it, can greatly improve the situation.

If you or someone you love is handicapped by pain, isolated and alienated by its effects, frustrated by lack of services and demoralized by changes to career, family, society and personal life; please join us in for the Project Mend pain abatement workshop.

• The Write Way, Expressive Journaling
• 6 week workshop — $40.00

All caregivers need to ventilate and sometimes that is especially hard to do because the person you usually talk with may just be the ill person you are now caregiving. Here is another way: Join the writing group which continues online after the workshop concludes. Express what you notice, feel, think, believe, and really need to get off your chest. Different than just talking.

Conferences

Polk Family Caregivers traditionally hosts several annual caregiver conferences. There is no charge for conference admissions.

The Family Caregiver Summit and Community Expo is an educational springtime conference, now the largest event of its type in Central Florida. This all day event hosts hundreds of caregivers and features numerous expert presenters speaking on a wide range of topics, health and wellness vendors, and displays of new innovations helpful in long-term and chronic care.

The Alzheimer's Summit is an educational Autumn conference hosted with collaborating partner, the SunCoast Gerontology Center of University of Florida, Tampa, with the latest ideas for best care, research about Alzheimer's and Dementia, clinical trials and information regarding local resources.

Continuing Education Fair is hosted each year to further the development and professional training of medical personnel in our community.

Speakers Bureau

If you, your employer, church or civic club would like to know more about the programs, services or issues surrounding chronic healthcare or family caregiving; Polk Family Caregivers has speakers available. Just phone the office at (863) 603-9110 to request a speaker.