Longtime geriatric social worker and Mercer Island resident Carin Mack is reaching out to her community to lend a critical hand with a new senior support program.

After recently retiring as director of the Memory Loss Program at Greenwood Senior Center in Seattle, Mack will now volunteer her time facilitating the Mercer Island Youth and Family Services (MIYFS) support group that is geared toward seniors caring for their spouses or partners with dementia.

Mack will lead the YFS staff-supported group meetings from 10:30 a.m. to noon on the fourth Wednesday of each month beginning Jan. 24 at the Mercer Island Community and Event Center.

Mack, who has a master’s of social work degree, has resided on the Island since 1978 and has been a geriatric specialist for 40-plus years.

“My mission and passion has always been supporting older adults,” said Mack, who developed the Memory Loss Program at Greenwood and was the director there for 12 or 13 years of her nearly 25-year run at the facility.

YFS Administrator Derek Franklin said the goodwill of a community member has brought this vital YFS-sponsored program to those in need on the Island in a pro-bono scenario. Franklin added that they’re lucky to have connected with Mack, who has also worked in the Parkinson’s realm, handled general senior issues, case management and more.

“Listening to her, she and I kind of put our heads together and agreed that we think we can fill this pretty quickly just from Mercer Island residents,” he said. “(After Covid) it kind of feels like we’re in a new chapter now. One of the things that we’re excited about at YFS is starting to build back some senior services.”

Following her retirement, Mack felt it was the right time to focus her life’s work on her Island community.

“I have always felt a little guilty that living here so long, I didn’t give back. That is my social worker mindset. I decided that when I retired, that’s all I was going to be doing, and that I would volunteer my time,” said Mack, adding that the group will gain strength because participants will share a commonality of living on the Island and hopefully become close during the sessions.

During the meetings, Mack will educate people about the disease as attendees share their concerns about dementia.

“In my opinion, (it’s) the most difficult caregiving role that you can possibly find. And it’s tough, and it goes on for a long time. And there is still, I’m very sorry to say, a stigma with dementia,” she said.

Franklin noted that they’ll roll out the support group monthly for now and assess where they stand for capacity and need as time moves on.

“My hope is going to be that this is one in several projects that starts to kind of reemerge as we all kind of get our feet back under us from Covid,” he said.

For more information or to register, call the MIYFS confidential voicemail at 206-275-7657.