Helping Families Get the Most From Their Elder Care Experience
For John Brady, elder care was always something that happened to someone else. Now, with his parents in their 90′s and his wife’s father afflicted with Alzheimer’s, he is starting to appreciate what his friends and co-workers have been going through.
Realizing there weren’t many options out there for his fellow Boomers, John started Top Elder Cares as a vehicle to help Baby Boomers deal with the sometimes overwhelming challenges of caring for their aging parents and relatives.
I had breakfast last week with Pete Todd, founder of Loving Back. Based in Orange County, California like me, Loving Back was launched to help you care for your aging parents. Inspired by seeing friends and loved ones overwhelmed by the stress and challenges of providing care, Loving Back is dedicated to connecting you online to other caregivers, rated providers and helpful resources.
The transition to assisted living can be a difficult period for our loved ones. Many residents have lived in their community for a long period of time, and they’ve already developed their cliques and daily habits. In fact, being the new resident at a community can be compared to that of starting your first day of high school. The surrounding are not familiar and the faces are definitely new.
Linda Abbit has been the primary caregiver for her parents since 2000. Her father has since passed on, and she continues to provide excellent care to her mother, Aida.
Like Jay Drayer at Careflash and Carol Bradley Bursack at Minding Our Elders, Linda Abbit has used her own personal experience as a motivator to help others.
Linda’s blog is called Tender Loving Eldercare. Tender Loving Eldercare has a noble mission. It’s best to hear it directly from Linda:
This site was created to share my knowledge, resources, experience and insight into family caregiving. As a baby boomer, many friends are starting to face the same issues I have already experienced since my parents are older than most boomers’ parents. I am happy to share what I’ve learned being sole caregiver for my parents since 2000.
I hope it is a place where other family caregivers can go to learn from, encourage and support each other.
Communication Skills Are Key
Within the world of elder care, there are a few bright lights that serve as beacons of information and support.
One of those is Minding Our Elders, a blog run by Carol Bradley Bursack.
Like most of us, Carol started with a personal experience that both changed her life and inspired her to share her experience with others. She shares her story:
It started with Joe. My elderly neighbor had lost his wife and his only child lived in New Jersey. He was totally deaf. How could I not help? My children were then young, and we adopted Joe. How could I have known he would become my charge for over five years? After Joe’s death, my own elders started falling like dominos into my care. First, my childless aunt and uncle moved to Fargo, North Dakota, where my family lived and still lives, to be closer to all of us. Then the strokes began with Uncle Wilkes. Then it was my in-laws and my parents. At one time, I was running between care-settings seven hours a day, seven days a week, helping elders, while caring for my own sons, one of whom has chronic health problems.
Carol went on to become a newspaper columnist, published author and well-known expert in the field. Her book Minding Our Elders: Caregivers Share Their Personal Stories
Grieving begins when adult children start to see their parents’ decline. They need support through the whole process. “Minding Our Elders: Caregivers Share Their Personal Stories
As a subscriber to her blog, I personally look forward to each of her posts. They uncover new information and provide expert advice for the issues I face on a daily basis.
For those of you in a caregiving situation, I recommend you take a look at Minding Our Elders.
A string of serendipitous events this week made me a true believer in how technology can dramatically simplify the way we care for our loved ones.
I heard from a family member that a distant cousin had a brain issue that has required several surgeries to correct. He’s still not out of the woods, but they’re making progress finding the root cause.
The poor kid just graduated high school and his mother is emotionally exhausted.
She’s drained not just from the stress of her son’s illness, but from the hard work required to continuously update friends and family, explain the illness, describe treatments and their results, etc.
Everyone wants an update, so she repeats the same process nearly every day.
