Karen Haq, left; her mother, Najma Haq, center; and her father, Subhanul“ Sam” Haq.
Karen Haq: Loving daughter’ s
legacy supports ACTS2
By Audrey Post FSU College of Medicine
All her life, Karen Haq knew exactly what being a caregiver for an ailing loved one entailed. She witnessed it in her own family, later living it herself for 16 years.
Her final act before her March 28, 2018, death from a rapidly spreading cancer was to create a foundation that would support respite care for caregivers as one of its primary missions.
Haq had no connection to Florida State University or to Alzheimer’ s disease, but both FSU and the College of Medicine’ s African American Alzheimer’ s Caregiver Training & Support Project( ACTS2) have benefitted from her legacy. So have the families it works with.
“ One of the most difficult problems family caregivers of older adults with dementia face is obtaining effective respite care services,” said College of Medicine Professor Rob Glueckauf, Ph. D., ACTS2 founder and director.“ They typically have not been given information about such services from their health care providers and are left wondering whether they are eligible to obtain them from state-sponsored organizations or, alternatively, whether they can afford private payment.”
With grant support from the Haq Family Foundation, in two separate gifts, ACTS2 has assisted family caregivers in identifying respite care opportunities in their communities, helped them in composing interview questions
for potential providers, and to review the pros and cons of each candidate or service they have on their short list. The foundation has made two separate gifts over the past couple of years.
“ The Haq Foundation has allowed ACTS2 to take a more proactive role in providing support and spend the needed time to address the concerns of family caregivers,” said Tomeka Norton-Brown, ACTS2 project coordinator.“ Because of the foundation’ s generosity, we can continue to support family caregivers of older adults with dementia how, where, and when they need it.”
Research has shown that African Americans are twice as likely to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’ s or other forms of dementia as Caucasians, Glueckauf said. They are also more likely to ask their faith leaders for guidance than their doctors.
“ If you want to help people, you have to meet them where they are, not where you wish they were,” Glueckauf said.“ We realized we needed to provide support to caregivers through a faith-integrated approach, to help them tap further into networks they already had.”
ACTS2 offers free skills-building and support services, with components such as relaxation training through prayer and meditation, creative problem-solving, and building in pleasant daily activities as a guard against emotional distress, such as brief chats with phone buddies
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