6:00 – 7:30 pm

Family Caregivers: Unpaid. Overworked. Underappreciated

How To Succeed Without Becoming Patient #2

One in five (21%) Americans report they are currently providing care for a family member, friend or neighbor, and nearly 60% of those caregivers report they’ve shouldered new or expanded responsibilities during the pandemic, according to a 2021 Northwestern Mutual study. Caregivers play a critical role in the success of tending to a seriously ill patient but often focus so much on the patient that they unknowingly neglect their own mental and physical health. AARP reports that 23% of Americans say caregiving has made their own health worse.

Join us for an illuminating discussion with experts on caregiving, who will share:

• Methods for caregivers to become more efficient in carrying out responsibilities
• Strategies to alleviate risks to health and well-being
• Resources to support caregiver health and to obtain more help with duties

View a recording of the presentation here:

Download a pdf version of the presentation here

BIOGRAPHIES

REV. GREGORY L. JOHNSON, Inter-faith Minister for Family Caregiving; Chief Advisor for Family Caregiving, Office of the CEO, EmblemHealth

Greg Johnson, Founder of Greg Johnson Partnership International, considers his life in three acts: Musician; International Business Entrepreneur; and Health Care Professional through his Ministry in Family Caregiving. Ordained in 2002 as an Inter-faith Minister, and a family caregiver himself, Greg continues his twenty years of serving EmblemHealth’s Care for the Family Caregiver initiative, along with his activities as Speaker, Author, Lecturer, and Retreat Leader for family caregiving.

To quote the Straits Times of Singapore, “The qualities that best describe GREG JOHNSON and which have earned him his exciting and diverse career are Leadership, Creativity, Enthusiasm and Vision. In every aspect of his broad and expansive areas of operation and expertise Greg has sought and found possibilities where they were least likely to be found, created them where none had hitherto existed. At all times he celebrated the SYNERGY of OPPORTUNITY and POSSIBILITIES. His innovative ideas, supported by substantive action, have produced enormously successful results.”

Greg Johnson Partnership International is in truth an “encore” uniting caring and commerce, where east meets west, presenting new avenues of synergy, marketing, creating and sharing new opportunities between cultures worldwide, truly finding and celebrating unity in diversity. This “Marketing Synergism” truly embodies Greg’s lifelong philosophy: “To contribute in all that I do to fulfilling the need for people all over the world to discover their similarities and to come to accept their differences without being threatened.”
Greg can be reached at gregjohnson@nullgjp-international.com

SAM SIMON, playwright & author, The Actual Dance: Love’s Ultimate Journey Through Breast Cancer
Sam Simon is a former lawyer, turned playwright and author. He describes his work with The Actual Dance, the play and now a book, as his “fourth age.” He comes to it after a career as a prominent member of America’s consumer movement. Sam was one of the original members of Ralph Nader’s first advocacy group in Washington, DC in 1970. Early in his career his leadership was recognized through a profile in the New York Times. (NY Times, Jan 29, 1971 p. B1). After a stint in the US Army as a JAG Captain, Sam returned to work for Ralph Nader and started a consulting firm. During that time Sam became a regular in the national news, appearing on programs such as Face the Nation, The Today Show, Good Morning America, CBS Morning News, The Nightly News, Phil Donahue Show and the Oprah Winfrey Show.

In 2008 Sam began his “third age” following the sale of his consumer affairs firm in Washington and became a Senior Fellow with the then new non-profit, Intersections International, a social justice initiative of the Collegiate Church of New York. He transitioned from that work at Intersections to serve on its advisory board in 2013 as he began to devote himself full time to The Actual Dance.

The Actual Dance is both a play and now a memoir. It is Sam’s story of his discovery of how to be what he calls the LovePartner to his wife during active treatment of breast cancer.

Sam lives in McLean, Virginia with his wife Susan. They have two children, Marcus Simon of Falls Church, and Rachael Simon (Proper) of Marriottsville, Maryland. They have four grandchildren.

PETER J. STRAUSS, ESQ. (Moderator), Senior Partner, Pierro, Connor & Strauss; Director, JALBCA; Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Law, New York Law School

Peter J. Strauss is a trusts and estates and elder law attorney and Senior Partner at Pierro, Connor & Strauss, headquartered in its New York office. He has practiced trusts and estate law since 1961 and has special expertise in the legal problems of aging and persons with disabilities, end of life issues and the capacity of persons with disabilities to execute legal documents with respect to health care. He is a frequent lecturer on those issues. He is a founding member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, a Fellow of the American Academy of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC) and Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Law at the New York Law School, where he teaches Elder Law and is director of the guardianship clinic. Mr. Strauss is the recipient of the New York State Bar Association “2019 Attorney Professionalism Award,” given to one attorney in the State each year. He has been honored from 2007 to 2021 as one of the New York Metropolitan area’s “Best Lawyers,” and as a “Super Lawyer” from 2007 to 2016.

Mr. Strauss is a prolific author and has written articles for various publications including the New York Law Journal and Bottom Line Personal and has addressed many national professional and consumer organizations. He is the author of the consumer book, “The Complete Retirement Survival Guide: Everything You Need to Know to Safeguard Your Money, Your Health and Your Independence” (Facts-on-File, Inc. 2003).
Mr. Strauss presently serves on the Executive Committee of the Elder Law & Special Needs Section of the New York State Bar Association, the Boards of Directors of End of Life Choices New York and JALBCA (Judges & Lawyers Breast Cancer Alert) and the Steering Committee of the Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine.

SHEILA WARNOCK, Founder & CEO ShareTheCaregiving Inc., Co-author Share The Care

Sheila Warnock never planned to be a pioneer in reinventing caregiving for the 21st century. In 2003, after nearly two decades of personal caregiving experiences (solitary and group) she made the decision to abandon her advertisng career to establish a non-profit organization. Sheila teaches a grassroots, evidence-informed model/philosophy known as Share The Care™ that not only provides a compassionate solution for all involved but also offers an option for a growing global crisis.

In an effort to reach caregivers, Sheila developed an accredited full-day training for health professionals “Seeding Share The Care™ In Your Community” and has personally trained 2,000 health professionals in 11 states and SW Ontario. Through her presentations, keynotes, and workshops Sheila has reached many thousands of caregivers and health professionals around the country and Canada. By encouraging use of the model by other programs, Sheila has helped millions who could not possibly be reached and supported by just one organization. Over the last 25 years, Share The Care has guided the establishment of groups in 50 states, 2 territories, and 21 countries.

Sheila has received many awards, including: 2011 L’Oréal Paris Women of Worth Honoree, a 2012 Local Lady Godiva Honoree, and in 2013 she received both a Daily Point of Light Award and a Community Service Award from Caregivers Outreach Ministry Empowerment. In 2015 she was given The Maggie Kuhn Award from Presbyterian Senior Services for her caregiving work and named by GOOD HOUSEKEEPING and L’Oréal Paris as one of “50 Over 50 Women” who are changing the world. More recently, she won a Visionary Award from Caregiving.com and was named a 2018 AARP Purpose Prize Fellow.

Share The Care™ website: www.sharethecare.org