S heila has spent her professional life in advertising as a Creative Consultant. After 30 years of dedicating herself to this profession, a profound personal experience changed her life. She became sole caregiver of her elderly mother and an emotional crutch for, Susan, a friend who was diagnosed with terminal cancer. By undertaking this dual role, Sheila experienced the tremendous burden caregivers endure. In 1988, she became part of a group of 12 women who came together to care for Susan for over three years. The contrast of caring for someone without support to the experience of sharing responsibilities with a group proved to Sheila that this collaborative approach to caregiving was of immeasurable value and needed to be shared.
As a result, she and co-author, Cappy Capossela, documented their group’s systems into Share The Care, How To Organize a Group to Care for Someone Who Is Seriously Ill, Simon & Schuster, 1995. The model took hold grassroots-style across the US and in Canada.
Tragically in 2002, Cappy was diagnosed with a brain tumor and required a group as well. Following Cappy’s death Sheila made the decision to change her career to establish ShareTheCaregiving and make the model more universally known.
Sheila revised Share The Care and added 50 new pages. The second edition was cited by The Library Journal as “One of the Best Consumer Healthcare Books of 2004” and recently won a Today’s Caregiver “2008 Caregiver Friendly Award.” Currently, Sheila lectures, and leads full-day training sessions.
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