head-down
If you are a long distance caregiver, you probably often feel like you’re in the dark. You call and call your care recipient and there’s no answer. You go to that darkest place – something must have happened. And then, if you’re like most of us, you go into full alert mode, calling every five...
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Very often, older adults empower one of their adult children with the responsibility of handling finances when they can no longer do so. In other cases, one of the children will step forward to take over, sometimes without consulting with his or her siblings. What happens if the other siblings don’t agree with how Mom...
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The role of family caregiver is filled with emotions, both joyful and trying. Yet as anyone who has served in this role for a spouse, parent, or other family member or close friend knows, it is the negative emotions associated with caregiving that seem to have the biggest impact in the moment. When working with...
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Visiting your aging parents over this holiday season provides a wonderful opportunity to create memories and to take a good look at how they are doing. Make sure you take advantage of this time to do both, especially if you live at a distance and don’t get to see them often. Perhaps the most important...
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One of the toughest parts of being a family caregiver, especially a long-distance caregiver, is keeping all of the balls you are juggling aloft. The truth is, the more organized you are, the less stressed you will be. Checklists and calendars are a big help for keeping yourself organized. But family caregivers are often expected...
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If you are the adult child of aging parents you have probably asked yourself how you would know if they need more help. If you live many miles away from your parents and don’t see them very often you either worry about this every day, or will be in the thick of it one day...
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Caregiving is all about control. As the caregiver, you want to control everything so that “nothing bad” happens. The person being cared for wants to remain in control so that they continue to feel like a complete person. If you can remember that control is at the core of every action and every reaction, it...
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One of the hardest parts of long-distance caregiving is keeping all of the balls in the air. The more organized you are, the less stressed you are. Checklists and calendars are a great help, and there are many wonderful tools available to facilitate communication between you and the person you are caring for, as well...
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