by External Article | Dec 25, 2021 | Caring for a Parent, Death & Dying |
My mother and father never married. This meant, as my mother explained, that I was his legal next of kin, responsible for making his medical decisions. This responsibility, already complex because of his lack of a living will, would prove to be even more fraught... 
by External Article | Dec 27, 2020 | Care Work Library, Caring for a Romantic Partner |
I was disabled, and she became my legs; over the years, as I grew sicker, I became more and more dependent on her care-giving and support. She always ran ahead of our lives to see whether I could handle the terrain—and I believed that she didn’t mind. I thought she... 
by External Article | Dec 1, 2020 | Care Work Library, Caring for a Child, Generation X |
Cody was having a bad day. He felt suicidal. He got drunk. He brought a gun with him — not uncommon, since many people carry in Alaska. He decided to go for a walk to clear his head. And when Jean called 911, hoping the police could calm him down and bring him home,... 
by External Article | Nov 26, 2020 | Care Work Library, Caregiver Stories |
Michelle Durden “has struggled to understand a criminal justice system that she feels has aggressively ignored her son’s deepening mental health crisis, which is also what she believes prompted him to flee the cops in the first place. “Where’s the common sense... by External Article | Oct 31, 2020 | Care Work Library, Caring for a Child |
Q: Last December, our 30-something son lost his job and asked if he could move in with us, and how long he could stay. I told him that depended on how good of a roommate he was. The answer? Terrible. He is moody and volatile. I live on edge because I never know when... 
by External Article | Oct 24, 2020 | Care Work Library, Caring for a Child, Generation X |
How would she get help for a boy who is Black and mentally ill and already vulnerable to some of the worst disparities in the U.S. health-care system even before the pandemic made things worse? Who fixes a boy when his family is on government assistance and the... 
by External Article | Sep 2, 2020 | Care Work Library, Caregiver Stories |
Joe Prude called the police for help. His brother was acting strangely and had suddenly bolted out the back door. But when Rochester police found Daniel Prude soon after, naked and walking in the street, they handcuffed him, mocked him, put a mesh bag over his head,... 
by External Article | Aug 15, 2020 | Care Work Library, Caring for a Parent, Millennial Generation |
For my whole life I have lived in a family where transparency about my mother and her illness was elusive to us all. We’ve all managed to say so much about so little over the years–my mother has struggled with mental health issues her whole life, but we... 
by External Article | Jun 23, 2020 | Care Work Library, Caregiver Stories |
Last year, the mental health nonprofit Treatment Advocacy Center found that one in three people taken to hospital emergency rooms in psychiatric crises are brought there by the police. Law enforcement drove 5,424,212 miles transporting people with serious mental... 
by External Article | Apr 2, 2020 | Care Work Library, Caring for a Romantic Partner, Housing |
My partner has extreme (and untreated) anxiety, depression, and an unbelievable amount of insecurity that makes her jealous, petty, confrontational, and not-at-all trusting. She’s come from a rough past, with abuse, and despite it, or maybe in spite of it, has... 
by External Article | Mar 2, 2020 | Care Work Library, Caring for a Relative, Long Term Caregiving, Millennial Generation, Occasional Caregiving, Sandwich Generation |
My aunt’s decline took place over the course of about six weeks. We went from her visiting on Sundays after church to pleading with me to stay at her house because she was afraid to be alone. I cannot pinpoint the catalyst for the downward spiral, but the day I... 
by External Article | May 20, 2019 | Care Work Library, Caring for a Sibling |
How my brother survived so long out on the street eludes me still. Much of it, I’m sure, had to do with his own strengths. Since adolescence, Tom had been deeply concerned with how to live, how to do right by others, how to be. He was quick to defend the weak, to tell... 
by External Article | May 3, 2019 | Baby Boom Generation, Care Work Library, Caring for a Parent, Long Term Caregiving |
In an interview with my father, Paul Weidlinger, toward the end of his life, he told me how he held my mother in his arms as she gradually calmed down. Later that night he woke up to discover she was gone. She had left their New York apartment wearing only a raincoat.... 
by External Article | Mar 15, 2019 | Care Work Library, Caring for a Parent, Long Term Caregiving, Millennial Generation |
Shotzy Harrison lived with her father, James Flavy Coy Brown, until she was three years old. But James, who has been treated for multiple mental health conditions over the years, was in and out of Shotzy’s life as a result, and spent most of his adult life homeless.... 
by External Article | Dec 9, 2018 | Care Work Library, Caring for a Sibling, Housing, Long Term Caregiving, Millennial Generation |
Three friends with different backgrounds participated in online text therapy sessions from January to April 2018. Friends With Secrets captures a slice of their lives — the good, the bad, the heartbreaking — and how they try to process the world around them. The... 
by Guest Author | Oct 2, 2018 | Caring for a Romantic Partner, Generation X, Long Term Caregiving |
I turned forty-three years old last month. Yay, me. Birthdays have never been particularly monumental to me. I neither dread nor rejoice in them. This year, hubby decided this was the perfect opportunity for me to have the honor of making all the decisions. What to... 
by Guest Author | Jun 6, 2018 | 24/7 Caregiving, After Caregiving, Caregiver Burnout, Caregiver Stories, Caring for a Parent, Grief, Long Term Caregiving |
When people find out I take care of my mom, a certain percentage of people tell me how lucky I am that I still have my mom. How I should cherish every moment. Sure, it’s hard now, but they’d give anything for just one more day. These people are assholes.... 
by STAT news | Mar 16, 2018 | Caregiver News |
We need to encourage them to do so In medicine, we talk a lot about advance directives, mainly in the context of end-of-life treatment. But, recently, while treating a patient with schizophrenia, I realized how powerful and important that same document could be in... 
by External Article | Mar 7, 2018 | Care Work Library, Caring for a Parent, Housing, Long Distance Caregiving, Millennial Generation |
[S]ometimes the world would get the better of her, and her strong, fighter’s spirit would be dragged down deep, drowning in the smallness of the situation. Held near the bottom, unable to gasp for air in the liquid uncertainty of these passing moments, she never knew... 
by Kaiser Health News | Feb 5, 2018 | Caregiver Stories, Caring for a Sibling, Millennial Generation |
Jenny Gold, Kaiser Health News When sisters Jean and Ruby were growing up in Harlem, they invented a game of make-believe called “Eartha.” The little girls would put on their prettiest dresses and shiniest shoes and sit down to tea as grown-up ladies. They discussed... 
by STAT news | Jan 25, 2018 | Caregiver News |
Here, they find support their schools can’t provide BOSTON – Evan Jones was excited when he signed up for a contemporary art class at community college. Then the professor announced the course would focus heavily on class participation. “That was the... by External Article | Nov 10, 2017 | After Caregiving, Care Work Library, Caring for a Parent, Generation X, Grief, Long Term Caregiving |
I see my mother as a woman whose life had been bottlenecked by pain. First, her trauma was unresolved. Then it became stagnant, then rotten, then completely toxic, eventually destroying her body, just like it had her mind. Her sadness grew bigger and she got smaller... by External Article | Aug 28, 2017 | After Caregiving, Care Work Library, Caring for a Sibling, Grief, Occasional Caregiving |
My older brother, Bill, had lit himself on fire in front of the Veteran’s Hospital where he was being treated for a damaged knee sustained when parachuting in Panama during our “War on Drugs.” He was also being treated for alcoholism, and diagnosed with PTSD. For... 
by External Article | Jun 24, 2017 | Care Work Library, Caring for a Romantic Partner |
After only a few weeks in her [dream job], Giulia’s anxiety level rose beyond anything I’d ever seen. She’d always been a bit high-strung, holding herself to impeccable standards. Now, at age 27, she was petrified, actually frozen…Her mind lost room for anything... 
by Guest Author | Jun 9, 2017 | Finding Meaning |
Mental health issues can strike at anytime, without warning and with little regard for your responsibilities. I knew my husband suffered from panic disorder when I married him. However, it wasn’t until a particularly stressful period at work that it became... 
by Guest Author | Dec 2, 2016 | The Caregiver's Toolbox |
Many people want to help a friend or neighbor who may have a mental illness, but they don’t know where to start or what to do. The feeling of helplessness can be paralyzing and many wind up doing nothing and walking away feeling guilty that they could have done more.... 
by External Article | Dec 1, 2016 | 24/7 Caregiving, Care Work Library, Caregiver Burnout, Caring for a Child, Caring for a Client, Caring for a Sibling, Death & Dying, Finding Caregiver Support, Housing, Long Term Caregiving, Millennial Generation, The Paid Perspective |
A family and their home health aids tells the story of their brother (and son) jumping off his balcony and sustaining a TBI. They’ll never know what caused him to do it. What happens next? What choices did they have to make about his care? How do they keep him... 
by Michelle Daly | Nov 8, 2016 | Community Wisdom |
Most people associate PTSD with veterans of war, but you don’t have to be a soldier to experience this condition. The NIMH defines PTSD as ‘a disorder that develops in some people who have experienced a shocking, scary, or dangerous event.’ When... 
by Guest Author | Oct 7, 2016 | Caregiving 101 |
Mental illness is prominent in the United States, yet it is not discussed as often as physical illnesses. Mental health disorders such as depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder are serious medical conditions that require diagnosis and treatment, yet there is a... 
by Kaiser Health News | Apr 20, 2016 | Caregiver Stories |
In March 2010, Pam Lipp received the call she’d been dreading for months. She figured it would come from one of three places: the police, the hospital or the morgue. Instead, it was her husband, Doug, saying that he’d just received word that their 18-year-old... 
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