Care Giving
What the heck is CDPAP?
You were barely making ends meet when your grandmother had a stroke. Nana was the pillar of the family, always there loving and supporting, no matter the circumstances. Now she needs some help caring for herself. And she loves her home, where three generations...
Help!
I was the sole caregiver for both my parents in the late 1980s. Like most adult family caregivers, I struggled to tend to my husband, teen-aged son, work obligations, and ailing parents, all at once. “Sandwich generation” is an apt description of how squeezed and...
Four Mistakes Caregivers Make
Caregivers aren’t perfect. As a nurse, I didn’t find giving my husband personal care difficult. But it broke my heart to see my brilliant spouse move further into dementia. His wonderful brain was physically changing. Cells were dying and synapses weren’t firing. As I...
For Those Who Served
Caregiving has changed over the last several decades. In the 60’s my grandmother was the sole caregiver for my grandfather, with as much help from my mom as she could give. It soon became clear that it was not enough, and he ended his days in a nursing home....
When the Caring Stops
Suddenly it’s over. The person you loved and cared for, who took center stage in your life for months, maybe years, dies and it left you heartbroken. You stand at the end of a road that once felt way too long. No more doctor’s appointments, hospital vigils,...
Hunting for Answers
When I was matriculating for my B.S.N. at Alfred University, I used every opportunity to study family caregivers as patients who needed certain interventions for health and well-being. Of course, “caregiving” is not an official disease, so that left family members to...
