Caregivers

When Caregivers Have to Make Difficult Decisions for Their Parents When was the last time you were faced with making a tough decision? What do you remember feeling? Were you nervous? Tense? Anxious? What about hesitant? Whether the decision is about a change in career, a long distance move, a financial investment, or grappling with…

If you’ve never seen a toddler standing spellbound in front of television commercials during the holiday season, you’ve missed a very important life lesson. When my child was three, she’d turn around to her sister after each ad and shout, “I’m getting THAT for Christmas!”  I quickly learned that it didn’t matter what was being…

Have you ever thought about the importance of touch? Author Paula Cocozza states, “The pleasantness [of touch] encourages us to keep touching, nourishes babies and binds adults, and threads wellbeing into the fabric of our being.” We don’t think twice to hug our children when they’re crying, and it’s therapeutic to pet our dogs when…

All of us have fallen at one time or another. My own experiences include more than falling in childhood when learning to walk or ride a bicycle. Remember disco dancing? I cannot begin to describe the mortification I felt sliding across the dance floor when an overly enthusiastic partner lost hold of my hand. Or…

Communication—both verbal and nonverbal—is intrinsic to the human experience. Effective communication, however, far from being an innate trait, is a learned skill. Throughout our lifetime, social environments (i.e. parents, teachers, friends, jobs, and other life experiences) shape our understanding of the world and determine the ways in which we express ourselves. These thoughts and patterns…

If your loved one has dementia, you know that caring for this person can include dealing with undesirable and often unpredictable dementia-related behaviors. As an example, a loved one may have been retired for years but becomes very anxious that he is late for work—and this results in his frequently trying to leave home unaccompanied.…

Many of us – in fact, most of us – will feel the effects of caregiving at some point in our lives, regardless of our background, socioeconomic status or location. We may find ourselves caring for a loved one, or we could end up relying on our loved ones to care for us. Though this…

A caregiver’s days often are harried with fixed responsibilities and countless unanticipated distractions. With so many tasks necessary just to get through a single day, the thought of getting out of the house with a loved one to do something extra—something new, fun and interesting—might seem impossible! After all, outings often involve significant advance planning…

“A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a life’s experiences,” wrote American physician and author, Oliver Wendell Holmes. What does this have to do with caregiving? Well, similar to an abstract painting in an art gallery, Holmes’ quote encourages us to think. It’s a conversation piece. Just as an abstract painting isn’t bound to one meaning,…

Loneliness, commonly accepted as part of the human condition, is no stranger to any generation, but it is increasingly familiar in the older population. It’s difficult to pinpoint every cause for loneliness because it is felt so personally. But we do know that some of the less pleasant aspects of growing older can create the…