By Bill Edwards
The Anniston Star
Ellen Tibbetts Vincent’s job is to educate people about some of life’s tougher times.
When she goes off to work as a senior human services coordinator at the Area Agency on Aging, she has around 200 caregivers in 10 counties dependent on her for advice, moral support and expediting payments for much-needed services.
That’s because Vincent was hired in May 2001 to be area coordinator of the Alabama CARES Program, which offers a ton of practical help to able-bodied persons caring for home-bound relatives suffering from a stroke, Alzheimer’s or other debilitating conditions.
“I started when this program started, so it’s my baby,” she said.
An acronym for Caregiver Assistance with Resources, Education and Services, the program is part of the Area Agency on Aging, itself a department of the East Alabama Regional Planning and Development Commission.
From EARPDC’s recently acquired building at 1130 Quintard, Vincent’s top-floor office looks out on a community full of potential clients. That potential brings about one of the unpleasant parts of her job: when she has to tell someone he or she can’t get immediate relief from the stress of caregiving.
“That’s what breaks your heart because you don’t want to say no.”
But, she explained, “I have a long waiting list — an extremely long waiting list. I wish we had more money because it allows people to stay in their own homes ... this is just a small Band-aid over a big (problem).
“When you’re a caregiver, you are so stressed out.”
The waiting list is for people seeking respite care, one of the most popular of CARES’s services.
Respite care, Vincent explained, allows caregivers a few hours on a periodic basis to get some “me time” and recharge their batteries or take care of personal chores.
The free time is made possible through contracts her agency has with in-home care providers, whose staff can fill in for the family member. (Examples of these providers in this area include Comfort Keepers, Delta HomeCare and Tower Home Care.)
“This means the world to them,” she said. “I’ve had clients come to me and say this is better than Christmas.”
Even if they didn’t say it, Vincent would know what they meant, because she walked in their shoes when her mother was terminally ill.
“It’s something I think is close to my heart because I’ve lived it,” she said.
But Vincent also brings a tough side to her daily quest for others’ comfort. That’s because her previous employment was in criminal justice, her major at Jacksonville State University when she graduated there in 1991. Her first job was in the Department of Youth Services working with juvenile delinquents.
Exposure to the grittier side of social services, she said, has helped make her alert to problems, such as elder abuse or financial fraud, that might affect how caregivers do their work.
It also taught her about the essential humanity that exists in nearly everyone.
“They’re still people ... you still have to treat them with dignity,” she said, speaking of persons either in literal jails of justice or figurative jails of poor health.
When not assisting caregivers, Vincent tends to myriad duties such as ensuring that home health agencies get their money — the services she oversees are federally funded and matched by the state — and speaking to groups of all ages, from classrooms to community centers, about Alzheimer’s or caregiver stress.
“Every day is different — that’s what’s so great about this job,” she said.
A novel demonstration of how Alzheimer’s affects a person is called the virtual dementia tour, part of the six-session Alzheimer’s education classes Vincent conducts from time to time. Using props such as heavy gloves, special glasses and earphones blaring music, a person experiences something similar to the impeded motor and sensory skills someone with dementia lives with all the time.
“Education is your best tool” in dealing with debilitating conditions, she said, because otherwise a person will get frustrated with life’s new challenges — and frustration leads to stress.
“When you understand it, you’re not going to get as frustrated,” she said. “I’m all about reality therapy ... Don’t sugarcoat anything. Just grab the bull by the horns.”
