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Self-Care for Depression Caregivers |
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Depression is a common disorder, affecting almost one in five people of all age groups and both genders at any time. This means that even if you are lucky enough never to suffer from it yourself, at some stage and to some extent you may need to care for someone with depression.
Although caring for a depressed person is a vital role, it is far from easy. If and when the person recovers, the results and rewards will be highly rewarding. But it is often a challenging and thankless task, requiring immense patience and perseverance. Still, it could prove to be essential for recovery and could even save someone’s life. Click to read the rest of the article from PsychCentral
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Offering Care for the Caregiver |
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Doctor and Patient
New York Times
By PAULINE W. CHEN, M.D. The man was nearing 90, losing his sight and showing signs of early dementia. After examining his abdomen, I fumbled trying to help him get his shirt and pants back on. After an awkward few seconds, the patient’s middle-aged son sprang forward from his seat near the door and began working through the buttons, zipper and belt with a practiced deftness. “Daddy,” he murmured softly as his fingers nimbly pushed each pearly button through its hole, “you can usually do this yourself, can’t you?” He continued cajoling his father, as he cinched the old man’s belt and patted the haphazard pleating that appeared around his waistline. “You can even feed yourself if I help get your food on the spoon, can’t you?”
My patient nodded absentmindedly, smiling at the fluorescent lights on the ceiling and tapping his fingers against his drooping mouth.
I felt as if I had just witnessed a scene that played itself over and over again every morning. Click to read the rest of the article.
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Videocaregiving.org |
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 On the Cutting Edge of Caregiving
Check out a new website from Terra Nova Films dedicated to "streaming" visual educational material to family caregivers. There are many informative caregiving websites: what makes this site unique is its almost exclusive use of video in focusing on the challenges faced by the caregiver.
The videos are designed to be short, simple and direct, and are able to be accessed easily by the user at any hour of the day or night. Many of the videos follow a documentary format that uses real people and follows real situations. Click for the Videocaregiving website.
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Helping Loved Ones as They Age |
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Exerpts from Times Talks: EldercareAs baby boomers and their parents grow older, more families must grapple with the medical, financial and legal questions that often accompany caregiving. As part of the Times Talks series of moderated discussions, experts on various aspects of eldercare shared insights into the best ways to meet these challenges. Click for excerpts of the discussion, which was moderated by New York Times reporter Jane Gross. |
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12 Signs of an Over-Involved Caregiver |
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 How do you know when you've crossed the line from good intentions to brink-of-backfiring? Every situation is different, but the following clues can give you some idea:
(Click the icon for more on this article from Caring.com.) - You handle all the details of the person's life so effectively that they complain of feeling "bored" and having "nothing to do."
- You're regularly in doctors' offices –but they're the doctors of the person you look after. You can't remember the last time you had a check-up of your own.
- You can't remember the last time you took a "day off" -- that is a day in which you left the house, left your everyday life, and did not do the majority of caregiving yourself.
- Pretty much your main hobby is eldercare.
- You prepare all the meals, even though the person could do some of the prep work or cooking – even if it took longer or wasn't done quite the way you'd prefer.
- You'll drop everything to take a call from Mom or Dad multiple times a day and then resist bringing the conversation to a close once you realize it's not an emergency.
- You have more fixed appointments in your weekly calendar for the person you take care of than just for you --i.e. no lunch dates, standing walks with a friend, visits to a gym.
- You've never even checked into eldercare resources in your area – just to see what kinds of programs and services are out there. (Transportation? Meal delivery? Adult day classes?)
- You offer to do things for others reflexively -- but you'd really never think of asking someone to do something very specific for you.
- You cater to the person's special diet needs (low salt, for example) but don't pay any special attention to your own nutrition.
- The last time you took a vacation was before the last election cycle began.
- A friend or relative slips and calls you a "control freak." It may sting, but before you get too insulted, ask why. They might just have a point.
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