Download or read book Helping Yourself Help Others written by Rosalynn Carter and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2013-10-01 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The chances are good that every one of us will become a caregiver at some point in our lives. We come to this challenge in the most personal way possible—we want to help someone we love, but we don't know how, and we're afraid of losing ourselves in this daunting task. If you have picked up this book, you are probably a caring person. You may prove that every day by helping someone who is elderly or developmentally disabled or who suffers from a physical or mental illness. It helps to know that Rosalynn Carter, former First Lady and a director of the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Human Development, which is committed to studying caregiving issues, knows firsthand the challenges of this labor of love. From her own personal experience as a caregiver for her father and grandfather and from that of hundreds of caregivers she has encountered before, during, and since her years in the White House, Mrs. Carter knows that caregiving can be rewarding, but also lonely, stressful, confusing, and frustrating. In Helping Yourself Help Others, Mrs. Carter writes, “Caregivers give so much of themselves and sometimes receive very little in return. The purpose of this book is to encourage you, to empathize with you, and to advocate for your special needs. I hope it will help you have an easier and more enjoyable life.” Mrs. Carter addresses the issues most caregivers face. How do you avoid burnout—the sense of feeling completely overwhelmed and unrewarded? How do you balance your responsibilities as a caregiver with the rest of your life? How can you enlist the aid of other family members? How can you educate yourself about your loved one's condition and work more effectively with the health care team? When is an institution the right choice for your loved one? How can you access helpful associations, literature and government aid? (A helpful appendix lists hundreds of resources.) Helping Yourself Help Others is a rare combination of a warmly personal account of caregiving and a reassuring, clear-eyed guidebook that offers practical solutions to caregiver's typical problems. Filled with empathy, this sensitive, encouraging guide will help you meet a difficult challenge head-on and find fulfillment and empowerment in your caregiving role.

Download or read book Prisoners Without Bars written by Donna O'Donnell Figurski and published by BQB Publishing. This book was released on 2018-11-01 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Laugh! Cry! G-A-S-P!" This heart-wrenching and triumphant love story is a tale of advocacy and caregiving. Donna's husband, David, stumbled into their bedroom, his hand covering a blood-filled eye from a brain hemorrhage. Donna called 9-1-1. David slipped into a coma. At that moment, Donna was thrust onto the path of caregiver for her best friend and the love of her life. In her debut memoir, Donna shares how a neurosurgeon said that David would make a "great organ donor." She writes of arrogant doctors, uncaring visitors, insensitive ambulance drivers, and problematic nurses. She also tells of the many compassionate doctors, nurses, therapists, staff, strangers, family members, and friends who helped them on their journey. Donna compellingly describes her ability to appear positive as she experiences the horror of making life-or-death decisions. As her world crashes, she credits laughter as her lifesaver. More than thirteen years later, Donna and David are living a "new normal" together.

Download or read book And Thou Shalt Honor written by Beth Witrogen McLeod and published by Rodale. This book was released on 2003-09-13 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides a comprehensive and compassionate guide to caregiving, covering such issues as assessing a loved one's health, benefits assistance, legal advice, dealing with burnout, hands-on care tips, and helpful resources.

Download or read book A Caregiver s Journey written by Karen L. Twichell and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2001-04 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than a million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer this year. Someone will be introduced to the world of caregiving for each and every new patient. Add thousands of AIDS, stroke, heart disease and Alzheimer's cases and you discover that there is an entire community of caregivers who have many of the same fears and concerns as the patients they care about. Patients become the immediate focus of attention by their medical team and by their families the minute they receive the diagnosis. They are bombarded with information about their disease, about treatment and about support groups. They are offered books and pamphlets and tapes and group sessions. Who is there to help the caregiver? Those who land the job of primary caregiver often have no experience in nursing, no knowledge of the medical jargon, and are prepared with nothing more substantial than their love for the patient. A Caregiver's Journey addresses both the practical and emotional issues facing the family. Many books and pamphlets recognize the caregiver but focus on the patient. This is a practical and helpful guide focusing on the specific concerns of the caregiver.

Download or read book Letters From Madelyn written by Elaine K. Sanchez and published by BQB Publishing. This book was released on 2016-05-17 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Madelyn Kubin was a 70-year-old Kansas farm wife. She appeared to be fragile because of her thinning white hair, macular degeneration, osteoporosis, congestive heart failure, and severe hearing loss. But when her husband Quentin suffered a debilitating stroke, she was forced to summon all of her physical, emotional, and spiritual strengths in order to care for him at home. Madelyn managed her isolation, loneliness, and stress by going to her computer, disengaging her emotional monitor, and writing letters to her daughter Elaine. Madelyn’s story of faith, courage, and love is told through her unflinchingly honest and surprisingly funny letters written in real time over the course of six-and-a-half years. Although she prayed every day that she would be a willing channel for God’s love and compassion, there were plenty of days she felt like telling God to go find himself another servant. Madelyn wrote unabashedly about her anger, guilt, depression, and grief. When Quentin displayed dementia-related inappropriate sexual behavior, Madelyn eventually learned how to handle it with grace and humor. She was an example of how it is possible, even in the very worst end-of-life situations, to experience mental and spiritual growth.

Download or read book Men as Caregivers written by Betty J. Kramer and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite the proliferation of books and articles on caregiving over the past three decades, the vast majority of research has centered on the experience of the female caregiver. This focus on women is neither unwarranted nor surprising given that women generally predominate in caregiving roles. Nonetheless, recent studies estimate that between 14 and 18 percent of men ranging in ages from nineteen to later middle age are providing care to a family member or friend with a serious illness or disability. And in men 75 or older, there are more husbands caring for wives than vice versa. Also among persons caring for AIDS sufferers in central cities, over 50 percent are men. In light of these substantial numbers, plus demographic trends that will probably increase the proportion of male caregivers in the future, it is important to study men in caregiving roles to further our understanding of this critical area of healthcare.Drs. Kramer and Thompson, both experienced researchers in the area of men as caregivers, provide an in-depth and comprehensive overview of the topic in this collection of articles from various experts.Part I provides the rationale for the volume, explores styles of caregiving, and critiques the premise that men do not do hands-on care.Part II reviews theoretical explanations of the gendered division of labor in family care and provides a critical review of methods used in studies that focus exclusively on male caregivers.Part III consists of nine chapters that both review the literature and present original research on male caregivers. Special consideration is given to gay male caregivers of partners with AIDS, men who care for a family member with dementia, fathers of adult children with mental disabilities, spousal care of women with cancer, and sons caring for parents.Part IV profiles gender-sensitive interventions, skills, supports, and services that draw upon research and clinical wisdom for working with the male caregiver.This valuable collection of current research addresses a neglected but increasingly important area of caregiving.

Download or read book Take Good Care written by Cynthia Orange and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-03-07 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the coronavirus pandemic, many of us are caring for others, both professionally and personally – while also attending to our own health and well-being. This book helps those who care for others navigate the subtle but important difference between caretaking and caregiving. In a time when tens of millions of people provide care for family members, older adults, and people with special needs, we should all be experts at it. Instead, we often struggle with caring for others while taking care of ourselves. "Cynthia Orange’s newest gem is a rare combination of inspiration and information that invites us to examine our behavior and feelings with an open heart, free from judgment, as we care for others and ourselves. Take Good Care offers valuable care suggestions throughout—from how to navigate difficult conversations to what contact numbers to post on the refrigerator. This manual for living will enlighten any caregiver’s experience, and Cynthia holds your hand through the process as only she can." —Lisa Sue Woititz, author of Unwelcome Inheritance: Break Your Family’s Cycle of Addictive Behaviors In Take Good Care, author Cynthia Orange brings together compelling testimonies from a wide range of caregivers, advice from leading experts in the field, and her own hard-won wisdom to capture the subtle differences between caretaking and caregiving. With a foreword by Susan Allen Toth, the critically acclaimed author of No Saints around Here: A Caregiver’s Days, this book shows us how and why caring for each other can be a mutually rewarding experience. It’s easy to become overinvolved in another person’s life and needs when giving care. Feeling burdened with expectations and resentments in a codependent relationship hinders a sense of joy, purpose, and engagement. Relationships require empathy and boundaries; with them, a codependent caretaker can transform into an intentional, self-aware, and compassionate caregiver.

Download or read book The Elderly Caregiver written by Karen A. Roberto and published by SAGE Publications. This book was released on 1993-08-09 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By bringing together contributions from the fields of gerontology and developmental disabilities, the editor of this volume makes an important statement about the need for collaborative and multidisciplinary research to be conducted in this area, and for the developmental disabilities service system and the aging network to work together to support these caregivers and their family members with developmental disabilities. --American Journal on Mental Retardation The shift from institutional to community-based care for individuals with developmental disabilities and their increase in longevity has resulted in more and more elderly serving as primary caregivers for adults with developmental disabilities. The Elderly Caregiver addresses the predominate issues and concerns confronting these older caregivers. By bringing together the empirical work of researchers from a variety of disciplines, this volume provides insight into the physical, psychological, and social needs of this growing segment of the population. Contributors explore the needs of elderly parents caring for adult children with mental retardation, changes in their caregiving activities, the increasing burden of caregiving, and the ordeal of facing their own frailties while planning future out-of-home placement for their children. Additional chapters focus on the needs of caregivers of aging adults with Down syndrome and Alzheimer′s disease. Finally, case management is examined from the perceptions of family members as well as case managers themselves. A concluding chapter draws together the implications for the future directions for practice, policy, and research. Unique in its presentation, The Elderly Caregiver is invaluable to researchers, practitioners and advanced students in aging, health/rehabilitation, social work, and family studies. "Not only does the author provide insight into some of the physical, social, and psychological needs of these [developmentally disabled] adults, she explores certain needs of the elderly parents who are facing their own aging problems. This accessible book is geared for caregivers, providers, family members, and professionals involved with older adults who have developmental disabilities. . . . This book offers highly practical advice of use to a wide variety of readers, including the caregivers, professionals, and health care providers concerned with adults having these disabilities." --Academic Library Book Review "In addition to enlightening the reader with its contemporary knowledge of the field, the text is well organized and includes some of the most impressive empirical work conducted in this area. As well, it provides some good suggestions for future research. . . . The work provides a comprehensive perspective on family caregivers, aging caregivers, and the aging of people with developmental disabilities who are recipients of care. . . . At a time when numerous books on deinstitutionalization, community care of the mentally ill, and the intellectually impaired are appearing on the market, it is a great pleasure to see a book that is well-rounded. . . . I recommend this book as a valuable text for researchers, practitioners, and students of gerontology. Further, it will serve as an invaluable book for caregivers themselves. It has undoubtedly made a significant contribution in the field." --The Canadian Health Psychologist "...This collection fills a significant unmet need, and can be related to other caregiving situations. It is an up-to-date and very readable book, for practitioners and policy makers as well as researchers and educators. Families should also find it useful. ...The topic is a timely example of the need for service integration in our aging society. This collection helps to address their needs and those of their children by applying theory, suggesting additional research, and making specific practice and policy recommendations." --Contemporary Gerontology

Download or read book Passages in Caregiving written by Gail Sheehy and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2010-04-29 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “One of those rare books that can drastically lighten even the heaviest of loads.” —Rosalynn Carter “Trust me: there is no better guide to caregiving.” —Bill Moyers Gail Sheehy, author of the groundbreaking Passages—which was a New York Times bestseller for more than three years—now brings us Passages in Caregiving. In this essential guide, the acclaimed expert on the now aging Baby Boomer generation outlines nine crucial steps for effective, successful family caregiving, turning chaos into confidence during this most crucial of life stages.

Download or read book Already Toast written by Kate Washington and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2021-03-16 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of one woman’s struggle to care for her seriously ill husband—and a revealing look at the role unpaid family caregivers play in a society that fails to provide them with structural support. Already Toast shows how all-consuming caregiving can be, how difficult it is to find support, and how the social and literary narratives that have long locked women into providing emotional labor also keep them in unpaid caregiving roles. When Kate Washington and her husband, Brad, learned that he had cancer, they were a young couple: professionals with ascending careers, parents to two small children. Brad’s diagnosis stripped those identities away: he became a patient and she his caregiver. Brad’s cancer quickly turned aggressive, necessitating a stem-cell transplant that triggered a massive infection, robbing him of his eyesight and nearly of his life. Kate acted as his full-time aide to keep him alive, coordinating his treatments, making doctors’ appointments, calling insurance companies, filling dozens of prescriptions, cleaning commodes, administering IV drugs. She became so burned out that, when she took an online quiz on caregiver self-care, her result cheerily declared: “You’re already toast!” Through it all, she felt profoundly alone, but, as she later learned, she was in fact one of millions: an invisible army of family caregivers working every day in America, their unpaid labor keeping our troubled healthcare system afloat. Because our culture both romanticizes and erases the realities of care work, few caregivers have shared their stories publicly. As the baby-boom generation ages, the number of family caregivers will continue to grow. Readable, relatable, timely, and often raw, Already Toast—with its clear call for paying and supporting family caregivers—is a crucial intervention in that conversation, bringing together personal experience with deep research to give voice to those tasked with the overlooked, vital work of caring for the seriously ill.

Download or read book The Long Goodbye written by John W. Wilson and published by . This book was released on 2020-11 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I'm a caregiver. The patient is my wife. She has frontotemporal dementia, or FTD. What's captured here, in this book, are my thoughts and reactions over time as I came to terms with her disease. These mini-essays represent a curated selection of writings I've been publishing on social media since 2014. In the beginning, they were simply observations about the natural world of the Texas Hill Country. Gradually, however, my wife's disease came to occupy center stage; as it did, the essays became the public face of our life.

Download or read book Strength for the Moment written by Lori Hogan and published by Image. This book was released on 2012 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first-ever inspirational devotional for home caregivers--those family members caring for an aging or sick relative in the home--from one of the most respected leaders in the field.

Download or read book Help for the Caring written by Brenda Parris Sibley and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2002 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This much-needed bibliography and filmography brings together lists of books about Alzheimer's and caregiving, including biographies, poetry, and even fiction, as well as in instructional and dramatic films.

Download or read book Caregiving 101 written by Taffy Cannon and published by Pilgrim Press. This book was released on 2021-11 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Caregiving 101 offers practical guidance from the author's own experience, from the formation of a support team to the options for long-term care. Though caregiving decisions can be difficult, Cannon reassures caregivers that they are not alone.

Download or read book The Unexpected Journey of Caring written by Donna Thomson and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-06-05 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With a foreword by Judy Woodruff, The Unexpected Journey of Caring is a practical guide to finding personal meaning in the 21st century care experience. Personal transformation is usually an experience we actively seek out—not one that hunts us down. Becoming a caregiver is one transformation that comes at us, requiring us to rethink everything we once knew. Everything changes—responsibilities, beliefs, hopes, expectations, and relationships. Caregiving is not just a role reserved for “saints”—eventually, everyone is drafted into the caregiver role. It’s not a role people medically train for; it’s a new type of relationship initiated by a loved one’s need for care. And it’s a role that cannot be quarantined to home because it infuses all aspects of our lives. Caregivers today find themselves in need of a crash course in new and unfamiliar skills. They must not only care for a loved one, but also access hidden community resources, collaborate with medical professionals, craft new narratives consistent with the changing nature of their care role, coordinate care with family, seek information and peer support using a variety of digital platforms, and negotiate social support—all while attempting to manage conflicts between work, life, and relationship roles. The moments that mark us in the transition from loved one to caregiver matter because if we don’t make sense of how we are being transformed, we risk undervaluing our care experiences, denying our evolving beliefs, becoming trapped by other’s misunderstandings, and feeling underappreciated, burned out, and overwhelmed. Informed by original caregiver research and proven advocacy strategies, this book speaks to caregiving as it unfolds, in all of its confusion, chaos, and messiness. Readers won’t find well-intentioned clichés or care stereotypes in this book. There are no promises to help caregivers return to a life they knew before caregiving. No, this book greets caregivers where they are in their journey—new or chronic—not where others expect (or want) them to be.

Download or read book A Caregiver s Guide to Dementia written by Janet Yagoda Shagam and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-10-12 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *New Edition with Updated dementia, dementia care, and resource information.* According to the Alzheimer’s Association, there are more than six million people living in the United States have Alzheimer's disease or some other form of dementia. Not reported in these statistics are the sixteen million family caregivers who, in total, contribute nineteen billion hours of unpaid care each year. This book addresses the needs and challenges faced by adult children and other family members who are scrambling to make sense of what is happening to themselves and the loved ones in their care. The author, an experienced medical and science writer known for her ability to clearly explain complex and emotionally sensitive topics, is also a former family caregiver herself. Using both personal narrative and well-researched, expert-verified content, she guides readers through the often-confusing and challenging world of dementia care. She carefully escorts caregivers through the basics of dementia as a brain disorder, its accompanying behaviors, the procedures used to diagnose and stage the disease, and the legal aspects of providing care for an adult who is no longer competent. She also covers topics not usually included in other books on dementia: family dynamics, caregiver burnout, elder abuse, incontinence, finances and paying for care, the challenges same-sex families face, and coping with the eventuality of death and estate management. Each chapter begins with a real-life vignette taken from the author's personal experience and concludes with "Frequently Asked Questions" and "Worksheets" sections. The FAQs tackle specific issues and situations that often make caregiving such a challenge. The worksheets are a tool to help readers organize, evaluate, and self-reflect. A glossary of terms, an appendix, and references for further reading give readers a command of the vocabulary clinicians use and access to valuable resources.

Download or read book Guide for Caregivers written by Benjamin Pratt and published by . This book was released on 2011-10-01 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In one out of three households, someone is a caregiver: women and men who give of body, mind and soul to care for the well being of others.These millions need help, more than financial and medical assistance. They need daily, practical help in reviving their spirits and avoiding burnout.Who are these caregivers? They are folks who have lived this tough life and felt the agonies and the boredom, yet they have extended compassion with a gentle word or a tender touch. As caregivers, they know anger, frustration, joy, laughter, purpose, mortality and immortality.This book is drawn from the wisdom of many caregivers and we have taken their advice: these are short, easy-to-read sections packed with wisdom and practical help! This book is designed to let readers jump in almost anywhere and explore at their own pace.Considering the millions of people worldwide who are caregivers, this book also is great for small-group study.