Caregiver Support

Men's Support Group

3rd Wednesday of each month, 1p - 3p

Christ Our Savior Lutheran, 260 Wade Road W, Loudon, TN

Facilitated by Matt Noll, Owner, Home Instead Senior Care of Maryville

Worship Service

Held Quarterly on Wednesday at 4:30pm

Next Worship:  TBD

In Partnership with Community Church 

Our Place, 103 Cheeyo Way, Loudon, TN

The Male Face of Caregiving

Diane Strever for Our PLACE

Welcome back to the Our PLACE monthly update. Share our information if you have a loved one, friend, or neighbor who would benefit from our adult day center program. Please save the date for our Gala on May 18, 2025, at the Tellico Village Yacht Club. More information will be available next month and posted soon on our website. This month we’ll examine how men navigate their caregiver challenges, and how Our PLACE can provide support and assistance. Later, we will share the life of our “Moment of Joy” individual who attends our program.

USA Today highlighted a survey showing more men are caregivers. It indicated that one in three men perform unpaid caregiver work: 27% care for a parent; 13% care for a spouse, 9% for a grandparent, and the remainder for others. According to the most recent Alzheimer’s Association’s Facts and Figures, of the 6.9 million people 65 and older with Alzheimer’s/dementia, 4.2 million are women (11%), and 2.7 million are men (9%). Because women live longer, the number of male caregivers is expected to increase rapidly.

So, it makes sense to focus on the critical role of male caregivers, and some of the issues they encounter while caring for a female with Alzheimer’s. One study identifies three difficult areas for male caregivers– domestic chores, including laundry, food preparation, and personal care. Assuming responsibility for daily meal planning and preparation is difficult. Providing personal care is an unexpected challenge for men as their spouse’s/parent’s health declines and marks a critical transition in caregiving. Many take extraordinary efforts to adapt to the daunting job of providing personal care. However, men surprise themselves with providing competent personal care for their wives as it becomes part of everyday reality and routine. Two studies reported that by focusing on the little things, men achieve a sense of control in a situation that is increasingly out of their control. The men in the studies used both formal and informal support and sincerely appreciated it when others took the initiative to offer support.

Our PLACE provides support and resources through a monthly Men’s Support Group, which meets on the third Wednesday of each month from 1 to 3 p.m. at Christ Our Savior Lutheran Church, 260 Wade Street, Loudon. My father would have appreciated this group’s support as he cared for my mother. Please share this information with a male caregiver who would benefit from this support.

Our “Moment of Joy” individual is Philip, who moved from California with his wife Annie in 2003. Philip was an operating room technician at the Henry Ford Hospital, where he met Annie. They were married on Thanksgiving, 1959, and he worked in the outpatient department of the Maine Medical Center. Here in Tellico Village, Philip was a valuable member of the TV Fire Department and taught First Aid classes to members and residents. Philip enjoys the interaction and kindness he finds at Our PLACE. Annie can find time for appointments, gardening, or reading while he is at Our PLACE two days a week. Philip loves his morning greeting from Our PLACE staff, who ask if he’s ready for his morning cup of coffee! Truly his smile is a “Moment of Joy!”

Our PLACE is the only independent, nonprofit adult day center in East Tennessee. We provide person-centered care and dementia-specific therapies and interventions for adults while supporting their families and caregivers through respite, support groups, education, and resources, creating more “Moments of Joy” for these adults and their caregivers. For more information, call our Executive Director, Sarah Martin, at 865-657-7222 or visit www.ourplacetn.org.