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Someone
Like You:
Meet
a Recipient
of
the 2007 "Caregiver of the Year" Award:
MoZetta Zion, Portland, Ore., Nominating Letter
This is a small tear drop that has fallen in an ocean filled with tears about my caregiver experience. There is a mixture of tears of joy, sorrow, pain and happiness.
My mother was born in 1922. At the time she suffered her stroke (1995), she was the oldest living of 13 children born to the union of my grandparents. My family history was engraved with many complex medical and psychiatric problems. The family health chain included links of: high blood pressure, stroke, heart attacks, obesity, high cholesterol, diabetes, bi-polar disorder, schizophrenia and criminal behavior. The family's last name was Pleasant. It was a saying, "They come from the Pleasant family, but it is nothing pleasant about them.
The question might arise, "How did you end up taking care of all three relatives"? Well, it was not so simple. I am an only child. My mother's two sisters:Dottie Mae and Lillie Mae each had one child. Dottie Mae's son, Clark died as the result of a gunshot wound. Lillie's son, Allen died from a brain aneurysm. I have been blessed to be alive and remember my cousin's very well. They were both my favorite cousin. At the time of major illnesses, I took over the act of providing care and managing care for the my mother and my aunt's because I know the industry. I am talking about really knowing the industry up close and very personal.
I have been a caregiver since age 5. I have walked in a multitude of muddy waters in the life of a caregiver. My experience began with my ailing grandmother and taking care of my cousins. I began my educational journey as,a Junior volunteer at Harris Hospital in Ft. Worth, Texas. In High School, I became a member of a program named Health Occupations at R.L. Paschal High School in Ft. Worth, Texas. It was a program designed to introduce students to the field of Health care. I later became a nursing assistant and worked in nursing homes and hospitals. I graduated from Tarrant County Junior College in Nursing in 1981 with an Associate in Nursing Degree. I graduated from The University of Texas in Arlington, in 1986 with a Bachelors in Nursing Degree. I've been a home health care, hospital, floor, clinic, agency intensive care, telemetry, oncology, open heart surgery, occupational and instructor nurse. It is expected the need for caregivers will grow much, much, much faster as we move closes to the baby boomers needing care. Today, the healthcare industry continues to suffer from shortages. I promised myself, when I first saw the care of those living in nursing homes, that no family member who did not want to be placed in a nursing home would have to be in one. I promised that no family would have to die in a nursing home. As of today, I have been able to keep the promise.
My family care giving experience including teaching others in the family how to provide care to ailing family members. In 1995 when my mother suffered a stroke my two children: Nicholai (age 13) and Darla (age 12) learned to manage complex medical needs. I taught them to bathe, feed, place their grandmother on the bedpan, perform catheter care, empty and record urinary output, take temperature, draw up insulin, administer insulin shots, make beds with their 280 lbs grandmother in the bed and whatever else was needed. They learned because they did not want their grandmother to be placed in a nursing home. They said, "Ma, Grandmother bathe, feed and cleaned our butts for us when we were babies, we will do the same for her". They helped me provide care to their grandmother, my mother for over a year. They would take turns on the weekend caring for their grandmother while the other one went to place Ninteendo games with friends.
During the years I have been the primary caregiver of my mother, I was there when she lost one leg and then the other as the results of diabetes. I have been at whit's end as my aunt suffered from manic attacks and needed hospitalization. It has been many years of hospital, clinic, doctor, home care, visits from State nurses and case managers. Due to my experience in the field of nursing, I have been able to recognize and prevent may complications of the diseases they each encountered. But no matter what expertise I hold, I am not able to keep anyone from dying.
In the city of Portland, they are known as "The Three Sisters". I generally would make sure they had the same doctor, schedule all their appointments on the same day, have the case managers come to the home on the same day to do yearly reports and take all to the movies in a lift van for activities. My mother even went to my honeymoon with my husband and I. Since, I am aware of caregiver burn out and the fact, many family caregivers die before those they provide care to, I am currently taking a respite break.
I currently live in the State of Oregon. Oregon has since 1981 received a waiver from the federal government to receive funding for community based services. I moved here from Texas (1999)and learned about the system. I have since 2001 received financial assistance from the State to take care of my mother and her two sisters at home. I also became licensed as an Adult Foster Home provider which allowed me to take care of my relatives and two more non-relatives in my home. The state will allow me to take care of five (5) individuals in my home that would have to be placed in a nursing home. The program has been in existence for over 26 years and is currently needing to be re-vamped.
I am currently working with SEIU (Service Employees International Union). The current caregiver crisis will continue to grow. It is imperative the nation become more interested in people than tennis shoes or computer chips. My current mission is to help families uncover the skills, confidence, support, finances and their inner strength to come together and provide care to family members in need. We are able to make a change in the economy and the health care industry. We must first began with ourselves and our individual families. I cry out daily to my family, those in my immediate circle,the world and nation one constant plea. That plea is:Help me, help you!
Meet Our Winners:
- Leon Beer, nominated Sharon Lebenkoff of Leeza's Place at Park Slope Geriatric Day Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
- MoZetta Zion, nominated by her self
- Patty Kearns, nominated by Nancy Lewin of Johnson & Johnson Caregiver Initiative
- Norma Bell, nominated by Sharon Pease, Norma's daughter
- Kimi Morton Chun, nominated by Sheila Warnock of ShareTheCaregiving, Inc. (coming soon)
- Aracelis Fernandez, nominated by Diana King of PSS Caregivers Support Program, Bronx, N.Y. (coming soon)
And, meet winners from previous years:
1995 Winner
1996 Winner
1997 Winner
1998 Winner
1999 Winner
2000 Winner
2001 Winner
2002 Winner
2003 Winner: Kathryn
2003 Winner: Joan
2003 Winner: Diane
2003 Winner: Elizabeth
2004 Winner: Chris Corbett
2004 Winner: Nancy Hoffman
2004 Winner: Pam Godzala
2004 Winner: Terri Jones
2004 Winner: Robert Olsen
Contest Rules
(Unforeseen difficulties caused us to put the contest on hold in 2005 and 2006.)
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