By Varshini Chellapilla
Six out of seven days a week, Deborah Maser used to drive herself to Trenton, New Jersey to a jazzercise class in the mornings. She was diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment in 2018 and was an avid jazzerciser. On Wednesdays, her husband used to take the train to Philadelphia to teach at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine. Her daughters would visit her that day to make sure she wasn’t alone for more than a few hours.
A routine had been set, only to be disrupted in March.
“When the pandemic struck, jazzercise had stopped – as did dental school, of course – for several months,” Dr. Maser said. “And it became a little bit more stressful because my wife had nothing to do in the mornings.”
The pandemic has seeped into nearly every aspect of caregivers’ lives. With increased health risks, mental stress and adjustments to a virtual world, caregivers across the country found themselves faced with new challenges.
The Penn Memory Center (PMC) began the Caregiver Forums in March 2020 in an attempt to provide caregivers a space where they could talk freely and share advice as they learned to navigate caring for their loved ones during the pandemic.