Life After Caregiving
Life After Caregiving Remembering. Reconnecting. Rebuilding. Curabitur aliquet quam id dui posuere blandit. Praesent sapien massa, convallis a pellentesque nec, egestas non nisi. Do What does life look like now? Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit....
How to do the impossible
So many people in the groups are facing caregiving situations where it’s impossible for them to do what’s required to meet the needs of the people in their lives. Accepting that we can’t do it all isn’t an option when the lives of people we...
Someone to talk to
At The Caregiver Space we work really hard to support each other. We have our online support groups so you can connect with each other. But what about when you want to talk to someone now and no one’s online? Need to talk NOW? Here’s where to get support...
Chronic Disease, Your Healthy Spouse, and Sex
Marriage is hard for everyone, but it can be even harder when one person has a chronic condition. Disease, illness, and disability can make a partner seem like a different person. That’s no one’s fault, says Laurel Wittman, board president of the Well Spouse...
When It Comes to Caregiving, Women Are Already Toast
In despair, I typed “caregiver” into Google, planning to follow it up with “resources” or “support group.” The first search the autofill suggested, however, was “caregiver burnout.” I sighed and clicked. That morning, I’d cried my way through a miserable appointment...
Listen, Open Up, Connect: A Mental Health Expert’s Advice On Living Through A Crisis
Terri Cheney did not expect she would be weathering the pandemic so well. The author of Modern Madness: An Owner’s Manual has been living with mental illness her entire life. She realizes now, this has been good preparation for the impositions of 2020. I think a...
Stolen Years: Learning How to Fight Lewy Body Dementia
A month before my grandfather William passed away, I sat beside him in the hospital, pushing a roll of uneaten sushi around a plastic plate. The rest of my family had gone in search of coffee while I remained behind, an increasingly regretful volunteer. My appetite...
How Caregivers Can Build Community (Even During Isolation)
Caregivers are one of the most socially isolated groups in the United States. According to studies by AARP, NIH, and The Family Caregiver Alliance, 40%-70% of caregivers report depression and loneliness. Because our free time is such a precious commodity, it’s...
Caregiving can be traumatic
In 1997, I took a two-year leave of absence from my position as a School Social Worker. This decision was driven, not by my desire to leave, but by a consideration for my spouse, who wanted to move near his family in Florida. In my mind, this move was going to be...
There’s a hard rain’s a’ gonna’ fall. There’s a hard rain falling all around the world.
‘Sometimes it’s hard to know if we should be friends with so many cancer patients. We get to know them so well from support groups and treatments and cancer groups.’ He rubbed his beard, squeezing tightly when he reached his chin. It was unexpected coming from him....
Knowing art therapy but not knowing art therapy
My sketches were always faint lines in pencil. I loved sketching trees in a wide diversity of their structures. Their trunks solid, firmly rooted with the most beautiful textured surfaces which my pencil would try to recreate on paper. Close hatches, very tight...
The cartoonist drawing comics about his mother’s Alzheimer’s
When Ted Rall’s mother started showing symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, it meant that Rall, who is an only child, had to navigate nursing homes and crushing medical bills without the help of siblings. “It’s incredibly isolating,” he said. For the first time in his...
Ambiguous Loss and Paradox
Guilt. Stress. Exhaustion. Anger. Sadness. We read these cries for help – these pleas for release – in blogs for caregivers whose spouses have incurable illnesses. We hear these cries loud and clear in our face-to-face support groups as we commiserate,...
Is Your Loved One With Alzheimer’s Vulnerable to Nursing Home Abuse?
Working in a nursing home is no easy task. In fact, it always surprises me when I read news stories about nursing home staff with criminal records, or who commit devious acts. I find it hard to believe that anyone would apply for a job at a nursing home with the...
Self-care isn’t enough. We need community care to thrive.
Unlike self-care, community care does not place the onus of compassion on a single individual. In a phone interview with Mashable, Valerio defined community care as “People committed to leveraging their privilege to be there for one another in various...
The Common Threads of Caregiving
When I became a long and near distance caregiver in 1999 for the first time, to my knowledge there was nothing like the caregiver support group online that we now have thanks to The Caregiver Space! I never had the opportunity to participate in a support group,...
Managing the Guilt that Arises From Caregiving
Guilt is an emotion that so many caregivers experience. It is one of the major challenges associated with caregiving. As caregivers many of us do all we can for the person we are caring for but sometimes it feels like that is not enough. There are a complexity of...
Wheelchair Blues
You’d think I’d have gotten used to it after four years, ten neurosurgical operations, drug-resistant infections and falls in the middle of the night, but it’s lifting up my husband’s wheelchair to put it into the car that I hate the most. The wheelchair’s handlebars...
How Do Primary Caregivers Stay on Top of Medical Information?
With so much to think about and consider, it’s hard for many to stay on top of all the medical information they’re in charge of. Thankfully, there are productive ways to organize medical information and focus on caregiving.
How does going to therapy actually work?
It’s so easy for someone to tell you to “reach out! ask for help!” but it’s so much more complicated than that. There are lots of reasons to go to therapy. It’s not about “needing” therapy, it’s about deciding to make...What it means to be a Caretaker – You’re not Alone
I was asked by people to share what it means to be a caretaker several months ago. What does it mean, had me reflect back to the start. Twenty years ago my wife was diagnosed with borderline functioning disorder and schizophrenia. Started with revelations of sick pets...
Searching for a diagnosis
How scientists are untangling the mystery of developmental disorders There are between 6,000 and 8,000 known rare diseases, many of which affect children’s development. One pioneering project is showing how, 17 years since the first draft of the human genome, our...
The most challenging job I’ve had to do
My toughest job with the most responsibility is as my husband’s caregiver. It’s not what I signed up for. I’m not looking for pity; it’s not something I had experience with. It was not part of my retirement plans, but something I was very motivated to master. How do...
Looking back on 6 years of caring for my mom after her heart attack
Dear PARENTAL CAREGIVER ❤️ My mom had a “moderate to massive” heart attack. I spent 6 years taking care of her day and night, feeding her, bathing her, checking her blood glucose, pouring her meds, arranging her ongoing medical appointments with 10 specialists,...
Your most valuable possession
The release of Disney Pixar’s The Incredibles 2 seemed a perfect time to revisit an important quote by Mrs. Incredible/Helen Parr/Elastigirl from the original film: “Your identity is your most valuable possession. Protect it.” To me, that is one of the most valuable...
Tax-Funded Mental Health Programs Not Always Easy To Find
Back in 2008, Mary Hogden was homeless, living on the streets of Berkeley, Calif. “I got beat up really badly out there,” says Hogden, 62. “It’s not a safe place for women.” She landed in the hospital and then in a boarding home for adults with mental illness. But her...
Family Caregivers Exchange Tips, Share Stories To Ease Alzheimer’s Losses
Vicki Bartholomew started a support group for wives who are caring for a husband with Alzheimer’s disease because she needed that sort of group herself. “My husband’s still living, and now I’m in an even more difficult situation — I’m...
Picking Up the Pieces After the Person You Have Been Caring for Dies
When you are in the midst of being a caregiver you build your time and your life around managing the caregiver tasks that need to be done. As a caregiver for my dad I know my schedule revolved around visits to the doctor, the hospital, the assisted living facility,...
5 Tools for Caregiver Peace of Mind
If you’re struggling with the stress and emotional toll of caregiving, you’re not alone. Over 40 million people in the U.S. provide care of some sort or another to a family member in need, often an aging parent over 65. Care duties may include everything from...Top Posts
Recent Comments