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Kapok Aging and Caregiver Resources

Kapok Aging and Caregiver Resources

Caring Across Cultures

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About Us

The logo and tagline for Kapok Aging and Caregiver Resources showing the tagline Caring Across Generations

Kapok’s mission is to guide older adults, caregivers, and their families across cultures along their journey. Through this blog, we share our experiences, best practices, tips, and affordable tools from sources that you can trust.

Who Writes Our Content?

Most of our content is written by the site owner Angelica Herrera-Venson and content creator Cassie Greenfield. Angelica has an extensive background in the field of aging and has worked in the field for around two decades, while Cassie has lived experience as a family caregiver and a passion for helping others through the challenges of the experience.

Beyond this, we have regular guest authors, many of whom are experts in their respective fields. We also encourage contributions from family caregivers, offering them the chance to share their stories and insights with our readers.

All guest content is thoroughly reviewed by an expert before being published to ensure consistent quality and accuracy. Angelica and Cassie are responsible for the bulk of this reviewing, while external experts occasionally contribute to highly specialized pieces.

The Motivation Behind Kapok

My name is Angelica. Nice to meet you.

I was inspired to pursue a career in aging after witnessing my own parents’ emotional struggle to navigate health and social services for their own health, not to mention the challenges of numerous relatives over the years.

However, simply working in the field hasn’t been enough. Kapok Aging and Caregiver Resources was developed in 2014 for that reason. Through the site, Cassie and I have been developing new and exciting content for 10 years now, exploring every avenue of caregiving along the way.

Our site is primarily targeted and their caregivers in the United States, although most of the principles, experiences, and advice apply to caregivers throughout the world.

We also have a strong multicultural focus, as ethnicity and cultural background plays a large role in the experiences of caregiving and aging. These factors can impact what people value the most, what is expected of them, and the resources they have access to.

As part of this emphasis, we have a small but growing library of articles in Spanish, along with a variety of articles that cover the intersection of caregiving and culture.

Why Kapok?

A Kapok tree growing in the sun

Kapok is the most widely cultivated type of Ceiba, a gigantic tree that grows in the canopy layer of tropical forests and plays important roles in mythology.

The Ceiba tree also goes by the name ya’axché. This is a word from the Mopan Mayan language, highlighting the tree’s importance in Mayan culture.

Ceiba trees, including Kapok remain widely important and keep their traditional meaning in cultures across the Americas (Mexico to Argentina), West Africa, and Asia (Java, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines).

The Kapok tree produces a light but very strong fiber that runs within the tree, connecting the different parts. This fiber also goes by the name Kapok and is one reason that the tree is highly endangered.

In mythology, Kapok symbolizes a “central world tree”, highlighting the idea of alikeness across cultures – “more alike than different. ” Despite all our apparent differences, we do have much in common, including the fact that we all age and experience similar challenges as part of that process.

Kapok means “life, perpetuity, magnanimity, kindness, strength, togetherness”.

These concepts are strong reflections of the nurturing qualities of caregivers and the way that caregivers help to promote the perpetuity of a family line, along with the habit of providing care and support from one generation to the next.

Calling this site Kapok is an homage to all that the Kapok tree stands for and the vital role that caregivers play in their families and their communities.

Our Authors

Angelica Herrera-Venson, DrPH, MPH

Angelica Herrera

Kapok is headed by myself, Angelica. I have worked in the field of aging and diverse communities for about two decades, maintaining a strong passion for helping people with aging, caregiving, and all the related challenges.

My training is in epidemiology in public health, with a focus on aging. As a former professor and academic, I have researched and published peer-reviewed, scientific articles on many related topics, including the quality care of diabetes, depression in older age, health disparities among Hispanic and other minority elders, and family caregiving changes in vulnerable populations.

A few examples of my work include:

  • Psychosocial and Cognitive Health Differences by Caregiver Status Among Older Mexican Americans
  • Cultural Influences in the Patterns of Long-Term Care Use Among Mexican American Family Caregivers
  • Religious coping and caregiver well-being in Mexican-American families
  • Variation in Older Americans Act Caregiver Service Use, Unmet Hours of Care, and Independence Among Hispanics, African Americans, and Whites

In my full-time job, I’m the Associate Director for Data Management and Evaluation at the National Council on Aging (NCOA). However, any views or opinions expressed in this blog are from myself, our small team at Kapok, or guest writers. These views and opinions are entirely separate from NCOA, even though we are pretty in sync on many aging issues.

You can see my posts here. I also recently published a new book called Multicultural Guide to Caregiving, which focuses on how culture and caregiving intersect, with practical tips for how minority caregivers can find the resources they need.

In Other Media

  • Quoted in AARP’s article How to Be a Caregiver for Someone WIth Diabetes.
  • Quoted in PBS Frontline’s article An Aging America Continues to Face a Shortage of Care 17 Years After FRONTLINE’s ‘Living Old’ Documentary.
  • A regular content reviewer for Seniorly, contributing to content on healthy aging and caregiving.
  • A guest on Mark McNease’s One Thing or Another podcast.

Cassie Greenfield, MSc

Cassie Greenfield

Cassie is a writer with a passion for mental health, neurodiversity, resiliency, and how communities can support individuals better. Cassie also has first-hand experience of being a full-time unpaid caregiver, trying to juggle the countless challenges that come with that role.

She wears many hats at Kapok. She is a key content contributor and ideas woman while also being the website designer, manager, and technical support guru.

You can see all of her posts here or learn more on her own website.

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