The Beauty of Service-Oriented Journalism: Using Wellness Events to Support Caregivers
Forty-two percent of adults who care for at least one person said they want information about managing their own stress according to a 2015 report by AARP’s “Caregiving in the U.S.” This statistic represents people in all caregiving roles including those who care for the aging population; however, my practicum in the Social Journalism program at the Newmark Journalism School at CUNY focuses on a different subgroup within the caregiving experience. I set to use my journalism and advocacy skills to amplify the lived experiences of families of color who are intimately impacted by autism through the care of a loved one with the diagnosis.
I’m working with caregivers and people in the wellness field (i.e. a massage therapist) to produce at least three wellness-themed events between October and December of this year. Stress is a common experience for everyone and in a caregiving role, stress becomes nearly tenfold. Ideally, each event would focus on one aspect of stress management or approach (meditation, yoga, tapping, etc.) and be tailored with information related to caregiving as a way to address the following questions:
- How does stress manifest in our daily lives?
- What does stress even look like for caregivers?
- How can we create pathways to stress management for people in caregiving roles?
Imparting verified information regarding stress management and potentially access to quality services — another issue that I’ve identified while working with this community for over a year — will be the entire foundation of these events. I get to use my journalism education and first-person experiences as a caregiver and advocate for my brother on the spectrum to address informational and emotional gaps to real people in real-time.
The premise of service-oriented journalism, as I am learning, is to discover creative and unconventional ways to empower people with the information they need to empower themselves. This work is also personal.
My parents who settled in the United States in the early 80s during Eritrea’s 30-year struggle for independence struggled (1961–1991) did not have a parent’s manual when they began having children in this new world. My brother, their firstborn or bokri as its called in their native language of Tigrinya, was diagnosed with autism at the age of 4. Seeing my parents persevere to provide the best life and quality care to him has rewarded me with the fortune of seeing all facets of the caregiving role — the beautiful, the bad, the ugly.
In addition to these events, I’ll also develop products that will serve supplements to these events including a 360 video focusing on one caregiver’s journey to regain balance of her life through meditation as well as something evergreen and tangible for this community to have beyond graduate school. In the life of a caregiver having a product that’s personal and low-tech is a priority for me. That said, I bring creativity, openness, and patience to Start-Up Spring with Jeremy Caplan along with a few of these hard skills: editing, social media, research, facilitation, studio production.
Please reach out to me with any questions or feedback at ariam.alula@journalism.cuny.edu
