During this pandemic, many of us have felt alone without anyone to really talk to; and that especially is true for caregivers.
Michael Rippens, a Los Angeles artist who is in residence with Pasadena’s Side Street Projects, is providing a voice for the caregivers around the city who need someone to talk to.
With Care Talk, Rippens opened up a hotline that caregivers can call and leave their message. These messages are now recorded stories that tell about their experiences, the challenges they face every day, and their personal views and ideas as they live and work at this time of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Sunday, January 24, the second episode of Rippens’s radio program, The Care Talk Radio Hour, will be broadcast on dublab, the Los Angeles-based online-only nonprofit station dedicated to the growth of music, arts and culture, from 12 to 1 p.m. Some of the caregivers’ stories will be heard on the show.
“I wanted to tell the story and give a voice to caregivers and what they are dealing with and going through during the pandemic, so one way to do that in a socially distant and safe kind of way was through the telephone,” Rippens said. “So the idea was to set up a hotline that anyone could call in and leave their name or be anonymous, just talking about how they’re feeling or what’s going on in their lives or what they’re dealing with at work. And then I would share that, creating an archive online where other caregivers could listen to the recordings there, and anyone interested to hear these stories could also go.”
Care Talk utilizes a telephone voicemail system where caregivers and home care aides can call (626) 427-7293 and record their personal experiences. The project’s website, www.caretalkproject.com, serves as an expanding public archive of these recordings, and site visitors can also contribute written messages via the website’s contact form.
Rippens said Care Talk was inspired by his mother’s immigration story and her life-long commitment to helping others. His mother immigrated to Los Angeles from the Philippines in the early 1970s and studied nursing at Pasadena City College. She worked as an RN in the Intensive Care, Cardiac Care, and Behavioral Sciences units at Huntington Memorial Hospital for over three decades. Eventually, she left the hospital to start up and manage a small care-giving agency which she operated from her home for many years.
“I worked with her for a period of time and so I was kind of familiar with that community and the network of Filipino healthcare workers, really seeing how that group was taking their safety and lives into their hands working on the frontline and caring for people who were getting sick during the pandemic,” Rippens said. “So this kind of sprung out from everything that was going on, with my own family background and connection to healthcare.”
In Sunday’s The Care Talk Radio Show, Rippens will include messages left by the public on the Care Talk Hotline, caregiver interviews and special guests. He will also respond to live
listener calls.
You too can be part of the show by sharing your story today through the Care Talk Hotline number or the Care Talk project website.
To listen to the live radio show, visit www.dublab.com and check the schedule for The Care Talk Radio Show.
