Professional Development Resources Publishes New Video Streaming Course on Helping Caregivers Cope with Anger and Guilt

    JACKSONVILLE, FL, August 06, 2014 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Professional Development Resources, a national provider of accredited continuing education units for psychologists, social workers, counselors, speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, and dietitians, has announced a new addition to its continuing education (CE) curriculum for health professionals: Caregiver Help Part I: Coping with Anger and Guilt. The course is the fourth in the company's upcoming series of video streaming courses.

The emotional stress of caring for persons who are aging, chronically ill or disabled can be debilitating for family members as well as professional caregivers. This course addresses caregiver anger and guilt, and provides a three-step process that helps caregivers develop an attitude of what is described as "creative indifference" toward the people, situations and events that cause them the greatest amount of emotional stress. By gaining insights into how degenerative and progressive diseases affect the life of the caregiver, the mental health professional will be in a better position to empathize with the caregiver's situation and provide strategies that will help them manage the stress of caring for someone whose situation will never improve.

"Feeling angry is a normal and predictable reaction to circumstances we cannot control," according to Elaine and Alex Sanchez, creators of the course. "Caring for loved ones with Alzheimer's disease or some other chronic debilitating condition is one of the most difficult and stressful tasks one can undertake. It is not unusual for caregivers to be angry with a variety of people, situations, and events. You may be mad at the disease, your care receiver, the medical community, insurance companies, Medicare, Medicaid, friends, family, and coworkers. People who are experiencing fatigue, fear, and frustration are especially prone to losing their tempers."

Caregiver Help Part I: Coping with Anger and Guilt includes video lectures, animated illustrations, and worksheets that bring to life the kinds of real experiences caregivers deal with every day. It takes participants through a three-step process of awareness, acceptance, and action: (1) becoming aware of the feelings they are having, (2) accepting their feelings as normal and healthy reactions to extreme stress, and (3) developing action steps to control and manage their feelings.

"This is a topic that will be welcomed by therapists and caregivers alike, whether they are family or professional caregivers," says Leo Christie, PhD, CEO of Professional Development Resources. "The seemingly endless stress of taking care of someone with a chronic and debilitating illness is impossible to appreciate until you have done it yourself. Elaine and Alex Sanchez have both been there, and their personal approach is evident throughout this training."

An added bonus is that this course is a streamed video course that can be taken on one's computer or mobile device. The "new CE" is the ultimate in convenience and accessibility because you can take it with you anywhere there is Internet access. If you have a small slot of time available somewhere in your busy day, you can pull out your tablet or smart phone and start viewing this course.

Those who complete this course will learn the similarities and differences in the anger experienced by professional caregivers and by family caregivers, understand the types of events and feelings that lead to caregiver anger and guilt, learn new ways to coach caregivers through the process of developing an attitude of "creative indifference" and preventing arguments from escalating when someone else is angry, identify behaviors typical of "guilt trippers," and use strategies that ease feelings of anger and guilt in caregivers.

The presentation - which is the first in a series of three CE courses - was adapted from and developed in partnership with CaregiverHelp.com, a video-based caregiver support program developed by Elaine K Sanchez and Dr. Alex A Sanchez. The program is unique in that the couple incorporates a lot of storytelling and humor into seven modules that cover difficult topics such as caregiver anger, guilt, depression and grief as well as dementia-related surprising and inappropriate sexual behavior.

About Professional Development Resources, Inc.

Professional Development Resources is a Florida nonprofit educational corporation founded in 1992 by licensed marriage and family therapist Leo Christie, PhD. The company, which is accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA), the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB), the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC), the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA), and the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR) - as well as many other national and state boards - has focused its efforts on making accredited continuing education units more cost-effective and widely accessible to health professionals by offering online home study coursework. Its current expanded curriculum includes a wide variety of clinical topics intended to equip health professionals to offer state-of-the art services to their clients.

Contact:
Leo Christie, PhD, CEO
Professional Development Resources, Inc.
904-645-3456
http://www.pdresources.org/

Professional Development Resources, Inc. is a Florida nonprofit educational corporation 501(c)(3) organized in 1992. Our mission is to provide busy health care professionals with accredited continuing education units on topics that are vital to contemporary clinical practice. In addition to our staff, we have a Professional Advisory Board consisting of accomplished professionals representing disciplines for which we offer our CEU credits. We are located in Jacksonville, Florida. Federal Tax ID 59-3138625.

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