Family and caregivers of patients nearing the end of their lives are invited to a webinar series from Hope Hospice that is now seeking to offer a more personalized experience through an interactive format.

The Family and Caregiver Education Series from the organization is aimed at providing support for family, caregivers and loved ones of those in the Tri-Valley receiving end-of-life care and touching on a range of relevant subjects, with an interactive series that launched in March and is ongoing throughout the year.

While the series is offered as a free service through Hope Hospice, organizers emphasized that the webinars are open to all.

"Our Family Caregiver Education Series is available to any member of the community who is currently engaging as a caregiver to a loved one living with a terminal diagnosis or a disabling chronic condition, regardless of whether your loved one is a Hope Hospice patient," Hope Hospice officials said in the description of the workshops.

So far, the most recent series has covered how to navigate the healthcare system, how to adapt in the wake of a fresh dementia diagnosis, and most recently a discussion on addressing end-of-life issues and navigating hospice and palliative care on May 11.

Past workshops are recorded and available for streaming on Hope Hospice's website. In addition to this year's series, archived recordings extend back to 2020 with discussions on caregiving and dementia care in the COVID-19 era that were released that fall.

While the archived webinars can serve as a valuable resource for caregivers and loved ones of those receiving hospice and palliative care, the current series that launched in March aims to deepen support for participants by offering an interactive format in which anyone can ask questions live during the workshop, seeking to personalize the discussions by addressing specific questions, concerns, and topics that are relevant to participants.

The next workshop -- "Self-Care for the Caregiver" on June 8 -- was also hosted last year, with a recording available in the webinar archives. This round, however, will be in an interactive format that allows live attendees to participate in the discussion and raise topics and questions related to their current caregiving situations.

"The stress that family caregivers experience as their loved one declines can be staggering. The constant fluctuation of changing roles, uncertainty about the future, and fatigue may ultimately result in compromised health and family dysfunction," event organizers wrote in the description for the upcoming workshop. "This webinar will focus on understanding the causes of stress, strategies for coping, and the importance of seeking support and utilizing resources."

Subsequent topics in the series this year are set to consist of "Handling Grief and Loss" in July, "Signs of Dementia Versus Normal Aging" in August, "Dementia Basics" in September, "End-of-Life Legal and Financial Issues" in October, "Medicare: An Overview and Update for 2024" in November and "Dementia -- Understanding Behavior as Communication" in December.

More information, plus archived workshops and registration for upcoming live workshops, are available at hopehospice.com/classes-resources/caregiving-education.