Community Connections Support Services' Home on the Web
Today we’re celebrating International Women’s Day! The theme this year is #BreakTheBias — check out videos submitted by the global community about celebrating women’s achievements, raising awareness against bias, and taking action for equality (or make and submit your own!).
Do you use social media? Consider posting using a selfie card to encourage others to commit to taking action – check them out here.
Hey everyone, some of you may have heard of Amanda Rocheleau and The Giving Tree podcast for helping professionals — Amanda has announced a 6-week online caregiver support group starting up this month. You can check out more information and details on how to sign up here.
Hey everyone, you may have already heard the latest news on easing COVID-19 restrictions in BC — but, in case you missed it, check out this news article’s summary or watch the live stream replay below!
Hey everyone, some great news — physicians can write prescriptions for a year-long pass to Canada’s national parks! It’s called A Prescription for Nature, and the program is being introduced in BC. Check it out here! This program is one part of a plan to get people out into nature regularly to support health and wellbeing — another key part is reducing barriers to transportation.
How often do you get out into nature? Leave us a comment!
Hey everyone, there is a free mental health workshop coming up:
FREE
Check out more information or register here: AutismBC Talks The Mental Health Literacy Guide for Autism with Jonathan Weiss — Events — AutismBC
Hey everyone, sharing encouragement and hope as we kick off the new year!
Hey everyone, there’s a local lights display starting up for the holidays today in Kelowna! Candy Cane Lane has a wonderful neighborhood display from December 1-January 1, and it’s a fun and festive (and socially-distanced!) activity for all this winter. Check out the article on Castanet or watch here:
We posted this poem, “Ode to a Caregiver,” written by the mother of a person receiving home share services, back in March. We are sharing these inspirational words again at the end of our month focusing on posts and resources for caregivers, and we are inviting everyone to join in with us and say: THANK YOU, CAREGIVERS, FOR ALL YOU DO!
Hey everyone, we’re focusing our posts on CAREGIVERS and resources for caregivers this month. We know that one of the challenges faced by many caregivers is…finding sustainable ways to integrate connecting with other caregivers into a busy schedule.
While we’ve posted about the importance of self-care to caregivers, we wanted today’s discussion to be more focused on how connecting with others who have caregiving experience can help fight feelings of isolation and loneliness. With the COVID-19 pandemic changing how we all connect safely with one another, feeling isolated and lonely is more common than in the past. So, since we’ve posted about many ways for caregivers to connect, what’s are we bringing to the table today to try out?
Podcasts! If you haven’t listened to a podcast before, they are like individual radio shows and are usually released in episodes. Podcasts typically target a topic per episode. These podcasts in particular are designed to be relevant to the caregiving experience by those who put them out into the podcast-universe:
Besides the more obvious benefits of podcasts (running for a set amount of time per episode; covering a breadth of information about a given topic; facilitating discussion with and between people who have relevant experience) they can be a great tool to help caregivers feel that their struggles, challenges, and successes are genuinely seen, acknowledged, and respected. And – we hope! – support caregivers to feel a little less lonely and a little less isolated!
Let us know in the comments if you have a favorite podcast.
Hey everyone, we’re focusing our posts on CAREGIVERS and resources for caregivers this month. We know that one of the challenges faced by many caregivers is…making time and space to take good care of yourself, as a caregiver.
We’ve talked before about the dangers of compassion fatigue, caregiver stress, and burnout , and we posted about the Family Caregivers of BC resources available earlier this week.
It can be hard to know where to start with self-care, so we wanted to highlight the Family Caregivers of BC webinars as one way to start building your toolkit. There’s many webinars to choose from, but why not start with this one? It’s called “Caring for Yourself While Caring for Others” and covers compassion fatigue and how the body and mind deals with chronic stress, as well as what you as a caregiver can do to sustain and nourish yourself.
There’s additional resources available too:
PowerPoint slide deck for presentation
Exploring Your Relationship to Self and Others with Self-Compassion
