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  • Matt Hamilton/The Daily Citizen Marnie Dodd, left, hands Maria Guijon an envelope for winning a raffle as well as being caregiver of the year as David McGuffey looks on Thursday at RossWoods.

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April 16, 2010

Guijon is Caregiver of the Year

Mark Millican Dalton Daily Citizen

DALTON — After graduating from Dalton High School in 2005, Maria Guijon landed a job with the Northwest Georgia Health Care Partnership. In her role as a case manager for people with various illnesses, she has come into contact with many seniors in the Hispanic community who are struggling with their health.

Along with dozens of other caregivers of senior adults, she was awarded a “Caregiver of the Week” award by the elder law practice of David McGuffey during the last year. On Thursday at the RossWoods Adult Day Health Services facility, which provides daytime care for adults who require supervision or assistance, Guijon’s name was drawn from among those weekly winners to be declared “Caregiver of the Year” — and to receive a $500 check from McGuffey’s firm.

“My wedding (to fiancé Teo Barrientos) is coming up in two weeks, and this really helps,” she said. “All the work I do makes me feel great for being able to help someone in a difficult time in their life. It’s a great opportunity God has given me.”

Guijon teaches classes twice a week on diabetes, hypertension and cholesterol control within Dalton’s Hispanic community. Twice monthly she teaches at Highland Rivers Center for mental illness, disabilities and addiction to both English- and Hispanic-speaking people.

Marnie Dodd, a social worker with the law firm, said it “means everything” for those who give care to seniors to be recognized.

“They’re our unsung heroes,” she said. “They’re hands on, caring for the elderly who need special love and a special touch. They’re on the front lines in the trenches day-in and day-out. We wanted to give them a pat on the back for what they’re doing. A lot of people won’t do (this kind of care), but they have the heart to do it.”

Angela Hale, a certified nursing assistant (CNA) at Amedisys Hospice of Dalton, said caring for her own mother — who passed away almost a year ago — helps her in her work with terminally ill patients.

“My mother was a hospice patient,” said Hale, also a Caregiver of the Week. “Being on the other side of that, you know what they’re going through, what they’ve felt, and you have more compassion.”

Dodd said in November the Caregiver award was expanded to include family members who cared for elderly relatives. Having cared for her aunt, who had no children of her own, Judy Blanchard was among their number.

“I was at Morningside (Assisted Living Community) a lot, taking care of her and enjoying the patients and staff,” she shared. “I did her laundry, took care of all her medications, took her to doctors’ appointments and redecorated her little apartment down there. I bought her clothes and dressed her, because she still had a lot of pride in the way she looked. That was until the point to where she got to where she couldn’t get out. I spent the night with her a lot and was with her when she died.”

Blanchard said she misses her aunt “a lot.”

“It’s been hard, but I did a lot of grieving in preparing for her death,” she said. “The grieving afterwards was easier because of what I went through before (with her). David McGuffey has been invaluable to us, helping with financial planning and other things.”

Dodd said she hasn’t heard of any other Caregiver of the Week and Caregiver of the Year awards sponsored by a law firm elsewhere in the country, but spoke about the program at a recent convention of the Life Care Planning Law Firms Association (www.lcplfa.org).







 

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