I am a social worker, military spouse, a long distance caregiver, yoga teacher, and social impact entrepreneur.
At the onset of COVID, I created Yoga4Caregivers as a community care project. This has since evolved into a social enterprise. Ellen MacKay is our Program Director. We currently provide free Yoga and Wellness classes to self-identified caregivers almost daily in a private Facebook group. We have more than 800 members and 20 volunteer Wellness providers.
I am also a new non-profit founder of the Caregiver Wellness Collective Inc. based in Tampa Bay. We are pending our 501C3. We aim to provide holistic wellness education and services to caregivers.
At the Caregiver Wellness Collective Inc., we envision a collective of integrative healing therapists and practitioners who are willing to support the holistic wellness of those who care for others by expanding access to these complimentary and integrative modalities.
One in five adults is an unpaid caregiver. There are more than 53 million of us across the country. The CDC states that caregivers are experiencing worsening mental health outcomes due to the pandemic, including elevated suicidal ideation.
Caregivers are often the last ones to put themselves first and they often neglect their own health and care needs. We hope to empower caregivers to explore the benefits of yoga, meditation, and other self-care wellness modalities to cultivate the resilience for sustainable caregiving.
About Jennifer
Jennifer Henius is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, long-distance caregiver, a sought-after Healthcare Consultant, a trauma-informed Yoga Teacher and an Adjunct Professor at the University of South Florida School of Social Work. Jennifer is a nationally-recognized caregiver advocate, speaker, and author with nearly 20 years serving in the US Department of Veterans Affairs in various roles from direct clinical care (i.e., geriatric primary care, hospice, emergency room) a C-Suite healthcare administrator, and a leading national policy and programs for VA Central Office in Washington, DC.
Most notably, Jennifer served as the Senior Health Systems Specialist for VA’s pioneering National Caregiver Support Program. This is the largest and most comprehensive caregiver support program in the United States. Among her many responsibilities, Jennifer managed Caregiver Education and Training, Strategic Partnerships, Outreach and Communications, and oversaw the deployment of the Caregiver Record Management Application (CARMA) … a workflow case management tool to process applications for VA benefits for our most vulnerable Veterans and their Caregivers.
Jennifer is a demonstrated LGBTQ advocate, integrated LGBTQ sensitivity into the Caregiver education curriculum and served on an interdisciplinary team to develop VA’s first LGB Health Provision Policy, VHA Directive 1340: Health Care for Veterans who Identify as Lesbian, Gay, or Bisexual.
Jennifer currently serves as a Senior Advisor to former VA Secretary Dr. David Shulkin’s nonprofit, Policy Vets, as an expert in Military Caregiving and Long-Term Care.
Following her sabbatical from federal service, Jennifer founded Yoga4Caregivers at the onset of COVID in March 2020 as a grassroots community care project. Her goal is to make the embodied self-care tools of yoga, meditation, and mindful movement free and accessible to support the health, mental health and wellness of caregivers serving as essential workers on the home front. This has evolved to a successful social impact enterprise.
Jennifer is also the Founder of a new non-profit startup, Caregiver Wellness Collective Inc. in Tampa Bay where she works to raise awareness of caregiver needs and services and delivers holistic health and wellness programming to individuals, organizations, corporations. She has partnered with Leeza Gibbon’s Memory Care Foundation, the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, the Department of Veterans Affairs, Wounded Warrior Project, and the City of St. Petersburg, Florida among others.
During Pride Month June 2021, Jennifer launched an online LGBTQ Caregiver Center resource hub www.lgbtqcaregivers.org as part of her nonprofit in collaboration with LGBTQ colleagues, advocates, and allies. The LGBTQ Caregiver Center aims to raise awareness of the unique challenges faced by LGBTQ caregivers and those who care for LGBTQ individuals, to empower LGBTQ caregivers to live with pride and dignity and serve as a conduit for education, wellness, training and research. The Center provides information and resources, delivers training and innovative services to enhance the health and wellness of LGBTQ caregivers.
Jennifer is passionate about health innovation, health equity, and patient advocacy. She currently serves as a Health Practice and Systems Advisor for the Center for Government Effectiveness and Modernization, Veterans Affairs Health Innovation and Central Office Division.
ACCEPTS VIRTUAL CLIENTS
Tampa Bay, Florida
[email protected]
facebook.com/yoga4caregivers
lgbtqcaregivers.org(LGBTQ Caregiver Center)
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