Mental Health Monday Caring for the Family Caregiver

As of 2020 almost 1 in 5 people in the United States were providing unpaid care to an adult with functional needs, according to the National Alliance for Caregiving. Caregiving can have positive benefits for caregivers, but it may also negatively impact their own physical and mental health. What resources exist to support unpaid caregivers and what is the future of caregiving?

Please contact Lauren Edwards with any questions (laurenme@uab.edu).

Speakers
Dr. Huang is Assistant Professor in the Division of Gerontology, Geriatrics, and Palliative Care at UAB.  She earned her PhD in Clinical Psychology at University of Alabama and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Palliative Psychology and Psycho-oncology at UAB. Dr. Huang serves as Director of Psychology and Counseling Program at UAB Center for Palliative and Supportive Care and founded the Psycho-Oncology Counseling Residency Program (PCRP). As a licensed clinical psychologist, she provides counseling to patients and families facing serious illness and spearheads the UAB Psycho-Oncology Distress Screening and Management Program.  Her interests include the implementation of system-wide best practices to improve access and quality of psychosocial cancer care, interprofessional education (IPE), health disparities, mixed-method research and trauma-informed palliative care. Dr. Huang has served as a primary caregiver for her 81-year-old father, a stroke and vascular dementia survivor.  During the pandemic, Dr. Huang traveled to Taiwan to get him from a nursing home and bring him back to Alabama to honor his wishes of coming home and walking again. She has learned a lot from caring for her father and is happy to share her experiences of caregiving.

Salaam Green, M.S. is an award-winning Poet and Author, 2020/21 Eco Poetry Fellow, A Reimagining Justice Fellow with the Southern Poverty Law Center, the 2016 Poet Laureate for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and TEDx speaker Birmingham alum, social entrepreneur, and daughter of Alabama’s Black Belt. As owner and founder of Literary Healing Arts and Red Couch Writers, she can be found helping others write to heal on red couches across the city as an expressive writer, Racial Healing Facilitator, and healer. She is a New Economy Coalition Climate Solutions Fellow and an advocate for environmental and restorative justice in rural Alabama. A writer and storyteller, who facilitates writing to heal workshops as an Artist in Residence with UAB Arts in Medicine her work has appeared in The Birmingham Times, Scalawag, Bust, Feminist Review, Black Youth Project, Elephant Journal, Southern Women’s Review, AL.com, Birmingham Arts Journal and more.

Dr. Kennedy is a Professor of Medicine in the UAB Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine. Dr. Kennedy completed his medical school training at the Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, TX. After this initial medical training, Dr. Kennedy completed his internship and residency at the UAB Hospital in Birmingham, AL. Dr. Kennedy then completed his fellowship training in Pulmonary Diseases and Critical Care Medicine in the same division he would later join as a faculty member. Dr. Kennedy is a supporter of the Birmingham VA Medical Center and has testified before the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs to display the need for ongoing support and appreciation for the facility and its programs.

UAB AIM’s Virtual Mental Health Monday Series is made possible by

Independent Presbyterian Church Foundation

Miriam Kirklin Reed

Susan Mott Webb Charitable Trust