The Caregivers' Club

Cynthia Banks is organising this fundraiser.

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As Producer and Director of the Caregivers' Club, a feature documentary about family dementia caregiving, I spent eight months researching and looking for participants. During that time, I met, visited and interviewed many at-home dementia caregivers who were in the state of crisis. They were exhausted and overwhelmed with the number of responsibilities and the inability to have any time for their own care. In one house, a male spouse even asked ‘could you just take my wife to the bathroom for me this time.’ Dementia caregiving burns out family members. There’s just no way around it right now. Extra, private care is too expensive for most people so they hang on until they can’t hang on anymore. There is an incredible need to provide extra help in homes. The system provides some assistance but it is randomly scheduled and of course, there is not enough to go around.
This fundraising effort will allow us to explore, develop and implement a unique Caregivers' Club Family Relief Fund (working title). We want to figure out a way to support caregivers existing in the most physically and financially challenging situations so they may hire private help at their convenience. This will allow caregivers to do something for themselves – whether it’s catch up on sleep, go to the gym, take a walk or sing in the church choir. These hours of respite can make or break a caregivers’ journey. This fundraising effort will also support the development of community engagement and awareness raising initiatives using the film. We want The Caregivers' Club to be used in a variety of settings as a professional development, advocacy, support group and community discussion tool.