Eboni Green
Faces of Caregiving – United States
Eboni Green works with caregivers for a living. As the President and CEO of Caregiver Support Services, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and as a health professional with a Ph.D. in human services with a specialization in health care administration, she’s spent more time than most studying, writing about, and working with caregivers. She also has first-hand experience with caregiver issues, having been a caregiver for her daughter as well as her mother-in law.
Five years ago, her mother-in-law fell ill with a virulent strain of the flu that ultimately required her to go to the emergency room and be put on a ventilator. During her treatment, she also suffered a stroke and spent roughly six weeks in the ICU.
For the next year, she spent time in various facilities before ultimately moving home with her own mother.
Sadly, Eboni’s mother-in-law fell ill in February of this year and never really recovered from it, passing away in March. Eboni, Terrence, and the rest of their family still care for grandma, who has heart conditions and mobility issues.
For Eboni, one of the biggest challenges of caregiving is the lack of support for people in her generation (she is 44 and Terrence is 48). Especially for caregivers who have parents as well as stepparents, they find themselves providing care to an increasing number of loved ones.
“The good part is that they were mother and daughter, so they were good company for each other,” Eboni said. “But you still have those relationship dynamics where mom was in her 60s and grandma was in her early 80s. They’re still mother and daughter, so grandma was telling mom what to do sometimes and mom was annoyed because she’s a 62-year-old grown woman.”
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GL-NONPR-00321 [September 2022]