287 MTSU PROFESSOR PARLAYS CAREGIVING ROLE INTO OUTREACH PROJECT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 2, 2007
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Lisa L. Rollins, 615-898-2919

MTSU PROFESSOR PARLAYS CAREGIVING ROLE INTO OUTREACH PROJECT
Taylor Takes Sabbatical to Implement Faith-Based Caregiver Project in Local Churches

(MURFREESBORO)–Dr. James E. Taylor never set out to become an expert in family caregiving, but life has provided him with the experiences and motivation to do just that.
An assistant professor of social work at MTSU since 1998, Taylor recently began a 12-month sabbatical from full-time teaching to help create what he hopes will become a network of family caregiving resource points within the membership of Nashville’s 14 African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Churches.
Taylor, who found himself in the role of caregiver for his mother 12 years ago, said that when most find themselves in such a role, it’s easy to become overwhelmed and not know where to turn for support.
“Family caregiving is a job we volunteer for and what we do in order to take care of our loved ones,” Taylor said. “I didn’t know that is what I was called, but I was just that.”
The “family caregiver” term, he explained, refers to anyone who provides assistance to someone who is ill, in capacitated or disabled and needs such care to maintain an optimal level of independence. In turn, because families provide the majority of care, they are called “family caregivers,” Taylor said.
Moreover, caregivers may be “informal” care providers, meaning they are not hired and are non-professionals, or “formal” care providers, meaning professionals. Informal caregivers usually are not trained and they may be a friend or relative of the person needed care, Taylor added, while formal caregivers are trained to provide care and often have no family ties to the person receiving the care they provide within private homes, hospices, medical centers or nursing homes.
An only child, Taylor said that when he first began overseeing his mother’s care—including locating and arranging needed services for his elderly mother in spite of their multi-state distance—he didn’t realize that a family caregiver is precisely what he had become.
It was this firsthand experience, though, that ultimately opened a new career for Taylor, who previously worked lived in Maryland, where he served as a program manager for the U.S. Department of Education until his retirement. Once out of the full-time workforce, it didn’t take long for Taylor to grow “tired of being retired,” he said. Thus, Taylor segued his long background in research grant management and social welfare policy organization into a full-time teaching role within MTSU’s Department of Social Work.
“When I came here and started hanging around some of the other professors, and when they found out what I was doing in regard to family caregiving … I ended up parlaying that into a family caregiving class for social workers,” said Taylor, who continues to care for his now Murfreesboro-based mom, age 94.
Initially offered in spring 2002, the Family Caregiving elective course Taylor developed wasn’t met with the student response he had hoped. “But as soon as the Regents Online Degree Program opened up, I modified that course to fit into that instructional format and it’s proved to be very popular,” he said, smiling.
The Family Caregiving elective, which grew in popularity via word of mouth and now boasts full student enrollments, became the impetus for Taylor’s current pilot program, dubbed the MTSU Faith-Based Caregiver Project, that’s focused on family caregiving and the need to serve a traditionally underserved community; namely, the black community.
By the close of December, Taylor said he hopes to help select members of the Women’s Ministry Societies within Nashville’s AME churches become educated about the numerous resources and agencies available to those who are engaged in family caregiving. By partnering with a multitude of such agencies, Taylor’s goal is to provide caregiving workshops that will enable the chosen AME representatives to become aware of the services available to family caregivers, and in turn, then point congregation members who find themselves in the role of caregivers to the proper resources.
Usually, Taylor said, “You’re unprepared for (serving as a caregiver) … and don’t know where to turn or find resources. My contention is that African Americans who attend my churches don’t know where to turn or where to go, so I’m setting up an information source in the church.”
Regarding project’s emphasis on the black community, “Historically, African-Americans face greater health problems, and when they are blessed to have a long life, they may not have the financial resources to pay for needed health care,” Taylor observed.
“Instead of living in a nursing home or an assisted-living residence,” he continued, “they often rely on family members or lived one to care for them in their homes. … Often, these caregivers are not well-informed about available resources and hot to locate services to help their ill family members.”
Although his non-instructional assignment began only this year, already Taylor has contacted and received a positive response from social agencies such the Area Agency on Aging and Disability, the Alzheimer’s Association, the Tennessee Department of Health, the local Arthritis Foundation, Tennessee Center for Child Welfare, Tennessee Respite Coalition, and the Tennessee Centers for Independent Living, among others.
“Usually when we think about family caregiving, we think about old people, but there are many other situations where family caregiving is at work,” Taylor noted. “We have children who are born with spina bifida and lots of other things, and when you have to go through life with that kind of experience, family caregiving is involved.”
In spite of the fact many may family caregivers may feel isolated, “There are a lot of us,” assured Taylor, who added that current literature estimates there are currently at least some 50 million family caregivers.
Moreover, he added, “The dollar value that we attach to the services that (family caregivers) provide is said to be in the neighborhood of $400 billion dollars. Given the amount of that dollar value and the number of us that do it, there’s not an industry in the world that comes close to that.”
With his awareness and expertise on family caregiving firmly in place, Taylor said his current project is a win-win for all involved, thanks to the public service it promises to provide and the partnerships it has begun to create. Additionally, he said he hopes other university faculty and graduate students interested in contributing to his current effort in some way will contact him about possible collaborations or added partnerships related to the caregiver project.
“I am excited about this; I can hardly wait!” exclaimed Taylor, regarding his project designed to serve. “I am going full-speed ahead … and working in the coming year to organize an advisory group, but I need support to help me do clerical work, work with churches and set up workshops.
“I would like to capture the essence of what’s going to take place in this model that I am building so I can create how-to manuals on family caregiving to distribute to the communities. … I think what we are providing is a public service, and that is how I am pursuing this, but I always welcome help and support.”
• For more information about Taylor’s Faith-Based Caregiver Project, please contact him directly via e-mail at jetaylor@mtsu.edu or by calling 615-898-5049.



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ATTENTION, MEDIA—To request an interview with Dr. Taylor regarding his Faith-Based Caregiver Project, please contact Lisa L. Rollins in the Office of News and Public Affairs at 615-898-2919. To secure a jpeg of Dr. Taylor for editorial use, please e-mail your request to lrollins@mtsu.edu.