Redefining Caregiving: When to Step In, Step Back, or Step Away

• In-person event
• 506, Tory Building, Carleton University
• 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON, K1S 5B6

• Contact
• Healthy Workplace, healthyworkplace@cunet.carleton.ca

Caregiving for aging parents is often treated as an expectation, but in reality, it is a series of complex, personal decisions shaped by capacity, history, and relationship dynamics.

This workshop is designed for those in the sandwich generation who are supporting, or anticipate supporting, aging parents and want a more grounded way to approach those decisions.

Using Amy Friesen’s proprietary ROOTS Method, a structured decision-making framework designed for complex family caregiving dynamics, participants will move through a guided process.

Key objectives include learning how to regulate emotional responses, identify recurring family patterns, define actual capacity, and determine personal thresholds for involvement.

Importantly, this work acknowledges that caregiving is not all-or-nothing. Participants will explore what it means to step in, step back, or step away – and how to do so in a way that protects their well-being without being driven by guilt, pressure, or expectation.