Caregiver Action Network

What a treasure trove of resources for caregivers! Whether you're just beginning to care for a loved one, or have been doing it a while, this website would offer you insights: www.caregiveraction.org 

Just some of the resource headings on this website are:

Toolbox. Search by disease/condition, resource type, or caregiver role to find checklists, guides, and helpful tools for every stage of caregiving.

Financial & Legal Tools. From understanding how to get paid as a family caregiver to accessing government benefits and assistance programs, find practical guidance and downloadable checklists to support your caregiving journey.

Support. Agencies and organizations, Community, Respite care, Peer-to-Peer support, Emotional support, Clinical trial support 

This Caregiver Action Network site even has a live chat box to help you navigate.

I encourage you to check it out. 

Be Sweet to Your Feet

 Caregiver.com offers NIH Tips for Happy Feet here. 

The Aging and Alone Care Needs

Announcing a timely new resource! In this week's Caregiver.com newsletter, Carol Marak writes that she has launched a Facebook group called Elder Orphans, people who are solo aging. Elderly people face many struggles as their abilities decline, and having no one to help them raises their frustrations and risks. In the new Facebook group, members can share resources and ideas.

IMHO, this is an idea whose time has come. I hope it snowballs to effect great changes in how well we age.

To read Carol Marak's article, The Aging and Alone Care Needs and Preferences, click here. 

Hypothermia and Older Adults

Caregiver.com article, Hypothermia and Older Adults, is timely. (Chicago windchill today is -10 degrees!) When we visited Mom and Dad, we knew to dress in layers. We might need that wool sweater traveling to their house in winter, but once inside, we would shed layers or perspire uncomfortably. This article explains why Mom and Dad set the thermostat so high. And why every armchair had a folded afghan at the ready.

 

Since caregivers sometimes also qualify as older adults, I encourage you to read here about reasons seniors need to pay attention to temperatures and hypothermia symptoms to look for. The Hypothermia and Older Adults article includes tips for financial help heating a home and additional resources.

Caring Bridge resource makes your life easier

Caring Bridge is what it says it is, a bridge from you (or your loved one) to people who care about your situation. Via the Internet site CaringBridge.org, you can easily communicate updates to people whom you choose to tell.

 

When you want to share a diagnostic test result, it's easy to let people you've designated to receive Caring Bridge updates know the news. Yay, Dad didn't have a stroke! When the oncologist decides on your mother's twelve radiation treatments to begin September 1 and end November 30, you can inform those closest to you of this decision. When you see that Mom feels nauseated for about two days after each Wednesday treatment, you can simply send a Caring Bridge note to please not phone on Thursdays and Fridays.

 

Recently, I learned that Caring Bridge also offers great advice on building and maintaining a strong support network. You can read it here.

When Caregiving is Not Enough - Finding Good Homecare

 In her article, "When Caregiving Is Not Enough ~ Finding Good Homecare," in this week's issue of Caregiver.com's newsletter, Leah M. Pavela, LCSW, offers a meaty list of issues to consider when seeking in-home care for your loved one.

 

Her tips, which you can find here, are very wise. After my family's frustrations and hard-earned lessons with several home care agencies, I cringe when I hear a caregiver say, "Oh, we're just going to hire Sally because our neighbor liked her." You need to ask Ms. Pavela's great questions about communications, supervision, emergencies, insurance, and so forth. Finding good homecare should lighten your load, so vet people and agencies with problem prevention in mind.

Cookies!

 She sat with afternoon sunlight rendering her royal blue cashmere cardigan and blue/apple green silk scarf into sapphires and emeralds. Or maybe her glow came from Day 3 of her only son's visit. Her eyes shone with joy and attempted attention to her son's fingers and lips as he tweaked her computer files, shortcuts, and apps to make her 96th year easier and cybersafer.

As grateful as I was for my brother's tech help and as hard as I concentrated on remembering all this new information so that I could help Mom after my brother went home, I zoned out. Had to leave. My techno-weenie brain was full.

On my drive home, a conversation replayed in my head. Mom had looked at me brightly and shared that when I had e-mailed that I wanted to bake cookies with her, she had immediately sent her caregiver to the store to buy all the ingredients. She was so excited. I was dumbfounded.

I wondered if someone else had expressed a desire to bake Christmas cookies with Mom. Who was the e-mail from? Me? I didn't remember saying that I wanted to bake cookies. Can't even imagine it; I don't have the patience required to bake cookies. Plus, it's not part of my childhood history with Mom.  Back scratches, yes. Head rubs, yes. Cookie baking, no.

Finally, in the car on my way home, it clicked. I had copied Mom on an e-mail I had sent to my brother to ask him if while he was in town, would he show me how to clear cookies from Mom's computer.

Awww ... Mom's eagerness to bake Christmas cookies with me touched my heart. Her confusion concerns me, yes, but mostly, I want to bake cookies with my mom.