By Katy Plant & Corina Paraschiv More than three decades ago, the original Better Choices, Better Health®(BCBH) research team identified the important skills to develop for those self-managing chronic conditions. While these skills are consistent, the motivation for achieving healthy living goals, however, may vary greatly from one individual to another. So to better […]
Sara had never tried a group support program to manage her chronic pain before signing up for a Better Choices, Better Health®(BCBH) online workshop. Over the course of the 6-week workshop, she discovered how group support helped her refocus to better manage her chronic pain.
This Fall, VA Caregiver Support Services will be expanding their program of comprehensive assistance for family caregivers. Over the last 6 years, our Building Better Caregivers® (BBC) program has been available to all Caregivers who are caring for a Veteran from any era. To date over 9,000 Caregivers have enrolled in Building Better Caregivers. The […]
Samanta is a Caregiver for her husband, a Navy Veteran. Several years after they married, she noticed a change in his behavior. As he became more distant, she grew frustrated and even angry at times. When she discovered the Building Better Caregivers® (BBC) online workshop, she signed up in the hopes it could help her […]
Idena is a Caregiver for her husband, a Vietnam Vet. They struggled to communicate, and went through periods where he simply didn’t want to talk. She would get frustrated when he spoke of the war, because in her mind, it’s long over. But she kept trying; kept building her fortitude and resilience. She even moved […]
This month, we celebrate the life of our colleague Kathleen Mahoney who passed away in early August. Like many of our peers, Kathleen had facilitated our online workshops for close to a decade helping hundreds of workshop participants and was a close colleague and friend to many. She was a seasoned facilitator and became a […]
By Wendy Wood Resilience is the courage to grow from stress. But, how do we become more proficient at becoming more resilient? Here are some ideas: Resilience is: the building of our inner resources, and, the identification of reliable external resources. Resilience is: self-confidence that supports fear-management. Resilience is: the ability to stabilize […]
By Wendy Wood Yoga was the air I breathed and the food I ate; until it wasn’t. A back injury came between my yoga-yes and my yoga-no status. When practicing yoga was no longer an option for me, I was left with a shattered self-image and a directionless routine. If I didn’t practice yoga, […]
As committed, I want to be accountable to you, to the broader community to reducing any bias in our organization and our programs. Here, I am reporting on what we have done this month to ensure that we continue our effort. This month we reviewed our workshop demand projections and the staffing needs given […]
By Serena Weisner -Community Manager for Canary Peer’s Alumni Community “I don’t know how long we’re going to be in the midst of this COVID situation. I can sit around and complain about it and be bitter, or I can do other things to help myself.” Sara communicated to me. She said it […]
By Carrie Pittman My parents married just 2 years after the Supreme Court ruled interracial marriage was legal in the United States. I was born 2 years after that, and by the time I was 7 years old, I learned to rank people based on their race. In doing so, I ranked myself. […]
By Katy Plant Reflecting on how Canary Peers can best support the Black Lives Matter movement, I am reminded that cultural humility is one of our program’s guiding principles and that it starts with listening. So I am sharing a snippet of Starette’s story as captured through a Canary Peers’ team member, Kathryn Ramos. […]