Meet the Developer and Founder of CopingWithChange.org

Posted on: 2013 05 15

I’m pleased to introduce you to a young woman, Adrianna Alpaugh. She is a recent Champlain College graduate, an Armistead caregiver and the developer of an interesting communication platform called CopingWithChangeVT.org. I’m turning the blog over to Adrianna so she can explain the communication tool she’s developed while at Champlain and because I want to help spread the word that CopingWithChange.org exists and is a good resource for families and caregivers. Introducing Adrianna… Throughout the past seven or eight years, I have developed a passion for helping senior citizens maintain their health, dignity, well-being, sense of humor, faith and independence. I am twenty-one years old, a recent graduate from Champlain College with a Bachelors of Psychology degree. Throughout my time at Champlain I independently studied the different stages, challenges and outcomes that occur with aging. I additionally used my personal experience as a caregiver to help broaden my knowledge. For as long as I can remember, I have been incredibly passionate about working with senior citizens. It started when I was nine years old; I watched my beautiful, kind and compassionate grandmother turn into an unmanageable and disrespectful woman that had no idea who I was. At a young age, my life was completely changed by Alzheimer’s disease. A few years later when I turned fifteen, I applied for my first job to be a waitress at a retirement village in my hometown, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. I worked there for three years until I came to Vermont to attend college, and insisted on pursuing my passion helping senior citizens by working for Armistead Caregiver Services. As a result of being a caregiver, I have become aware of how much the families of senior citizens suffer throughout these hardships that occur with aging. Nothing is more difficult than seeing your relative who taught you everything you know become unable to partake in simple everyday tasks. I have created CopingWithChangeVt.org to be a space for us in the Vermont community to communicate and disclose similar stories of how we deal with aging. I have shared several stories that I have encountered as a caregiver and encourage others that can relate to share their story on the forum. My main intention is to make people know you are not alone. I am confident that this will be a very valuable way for us to cope with the aging process.