Caregiving. com Founded On One Woman's Spirit And Determination

Caregiving. com Founded On One Woman's Spirit And Determination

Looking for something more led to a career change for a young woman, who turned her desire to help into a web site that, since 1996, has helped hundreds of thousands of family caregivers.

Park Ridge, IL (PRWEB) September 24, 2004

In 1990, at 27 years of age, Denise Brown looked at her career and thought, "There's got to be something more for me."

With that realization came a career change: From managing editor of trade magazines ("Modern Baking" and "Convenience Store Decisions") to working with family caregivers in community-based programs and in nursing homes.

"I worked with family members who cared for spouses, adult children, aging parents, disabled siblings," Brown said. "In my positions, I was able to provide respite services, such as short-term nursing home placements, home health aides and companion sitters. These family members were the nicest people anyone could ever meet--and yet had little support from other family members or friends. They spent a majority of their time caring for someone else. Who cared for them?"

Brown listened to the experiences of family caregivers for the next five years, hearing the common theme: Family caregivers often felt unsupported and misunderstood by other family members, friends and their communities. They also felt that caring for an aging relative was a life-changing experience, but had very few people with whom to discuss the experience.

The idea for a newsletter that helps family caregivers was given life during a keynote speech at an American Hospital Association annual convention in August 1994, which Brown attended. The keynote speaker, a physician, spoke about empowering patients.

"Why not empower those who care for the patients?" Brown wondered. With that idea came Caregiving! newsletter, an empowering tool for family caregivers, which debuted in January, 1995, through a small business Brown started. The launch of Caregiving! newsletter, would soon lead to Caregiving. com.

During the week between Christmas and New Year's in 1995, when Brown was 32, she heard a friend talk about how great the Internet was in terms of reaching a huge number of people. Three months later, Brown had created her own web site (she took an online course on building a web site through Prodigy, an online service). In August of 1996, as a result of the tremendous response to her site, Brown secured her domain name, Caregiving. com. At that time, just a handful of web sites were dedicated to helping family caregivers. Now, hundreds, if not thousands, of web sites devote much of their content to the family caregiver experience.

Each year, Caregiving. com reaches more and more family caregivers; currently about 24,000 monthly visitors enjoy the articles, free online support groups, and insights shared by Brown. Just five years ago, the site reached about 9,000 monthly visitors.

"One person can make a difference," Brown says. "A determined mind and spirit can directly improve the lives of thousands."

And, a little help from technology never hurts.

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