Sheila Warnock founded Share the Care after she and 11 women cared for a dying friend in 1995. The nonprofit, established in 2003, teaches groups how to share caregiving duties, reducing isolation and financial strain. The model creates a caregiving family that works alongside formal healthcare.
My name is Sheila Warnock, and I am the president and founder of Share the Caregiving, also known as Share the Care. And as you see behind me, Share the Care was also a book. In fact, that's how it all started back in 1995 when this book was first published. It came out of the experiences of myself and 11 other women who took care of a mutual friend with terminal cancer over the course of 3.5 years, and we figured out how to do it so that nobody had too much to do. In fact, we were like sisters at the end, and widely known as Susan's Funny Family. When our friend died, we were asked to help other people start groups in a similar way, and in teaching them, Cappy Capicella and I decided to put Share the Care down on paper, so other people wouldn't have to reinvent the wheel. And our organization was founded in 2003 following an experience taking care of Cappy when she was diagnosed with a brain tumor. And when she died, I decided to really get going with Share the Care and start our nonprofit. Our mission is to improve the quality of life of people who need support and to reduce the stress, the isolation, and depression and financial hardship of their caregivers. And we do that through education. I teach a professional training all over the country and up in Canada, as well as doing lectures, workshops, and presentations at conferences, work— wherever, wherever you want me, I go, and I can talk about Share the Care. And I'm very passionate about it.
Share the Care is a group caregiving model that shows ordinary people how they can come together and create a care caregiving family to help somebody they know who needs help. It not only organizes the people into this family, but it keeps them going.
Even in the most perfect healthcare system, the clinicians can't provide all the cares that a patient needs. Having a group of friends, acquaintances there to meet these needs is critically important.
When the Share the Care group was first formed last year, I thought, "Oh, I don't need this, you know." I can take care of everything on my own, and thank goodness we formed it.
We collected a group of people together, we notified friends and family and colleagues, co-workers. We have a place for everybody, no matter, no matter what they feel that they're able to give.
When Share the Care came together, that was a whole different story. They were organizing every single need, every little detail. All I needed to do was just show up. That's the amazing, wonderfully amazing thing about the Share of Care.
Akwesasne Radio Interview Reen Cook with Tewentahawih'tha' Cole and Sheila Warnock
Lori Miller of Kawaii Hospice in Kawaii Hawaii - Share The Care - Sheila Warnock
