Summerville couple working to bring relief to family caregivers across South Carolina

SUMMERVILLE, S.C. (WCBD) – A Summerville couple is working to improve the lives of unpaid caregivers after seeing firsthand how much impact caregivers can have on patient outcomes – and how many challenges caregivers must overcome.

Vishal Patel had his first stroke in 2008. He survived, but he was faced with a challenging recovery that saw many long hours in the emergency room and rehab, relearning even the simplest of tasks like how to walk.

“It’s been very challenging, but on the flip side, it’s shown me compassion- showed me how people can and should rise to the challenge, and that the universe always gives you things that you’re in some way capable of dealing with,” said Patel.

He suffered another more severe stroke in 2015.

“It affected my memory and my way of thinking and recognizing things, and it was very, very challenging,” he said.

But by his side through both strokes is his wife, Deepa, who has dedicated her life to helping him heal. She’s one of the estimated 700,000 family caregivers across South Carolina who provide over 730 million hours of unpaid care annually, according to a recent study by the South Carolina House Legislative Oversight Committee Department on Aging.

Patel said his struggles opened his eyes to the struggles of family caregivers across the country and decided to make a change.

“We’ve created a platform in which family caregivers can start to benefit and local businesses, at the same time, start benefiting. And basically, what the core of it is is a shopping platform where they can get the goods and services they need on a day-to-day basis at great prices. Some of them who need an income can become what we call ambassadors,” he explained.

Patel started a program called Family Caregivers Cooperative to relieve some of the financial strain caregivers face. It also provides education, care management tools, support, and opportunities to earn extra income without sacrificing caring for their loved ones.

Patel said he hopes addressing these needs provides some relief.

“Working on the financial stresses, we give a bit of bandwidth for them to be able to deal with other stresses in a better way, and we found through a lot of research that this could be a huge potential for improving the quality of life of the caregivers,” said Patel.

If you are a local unpaid caregiver or vendor interested in learning more about how to get involved with the organization, please click here.