A Cast of Caregivers


Book Description

What caregiving role will you play? How will you avoid the caregiving cost drain? Are you prepared for the end? How will you overcome stress, burn-out, depression, guilt? How will you find happiness and support? How do you start the caregiving conversation with a loved one? Are you caring for yourself while caregiving? More than 65 million Americans are caring for a loved one yet most dont know what they are facing or where to get help. Caregiving expert Sherri Snelling shines a spotlight on the world of caregiving and interviews celebrities who have taken the caregiving journey and shared their lessons learned. This how-to guide also covers caregiving topics A to Z, self-care advice and more. Inside you will find numerous expert interviews and tips on how to have the C-A-R-E Conversation and how to find your Me Time Monday. Written to inspire and empower you, this is your screenplay for health and happiness while caregiving. As Dorothy said in The Wizard of Oz, Toto, I have a feeling were not in Kansas anymore. Welcome to the Cast of Caregivers.




Already Toast


Book Description

The story of one woman’s struggle to care for her seriously ill husband—and a revealing look at the role unpaid family caregivers play in a society that fails to provide them with structural support. Already Toast shows how all-consuming caregiving can be, how difficult it is to find support, and how the social and literary narratives that have long locked women into providing emotional labor also keep them in unpaid caregiving roles. When Kate Washington and her husband, Brad, learned that he had cancer, they were a young couple: professionals with ascending careers, parents to two small children. Brad’s diagnosis stripped those identities away: he became a patient and she his caregiver. Brad’s cancer quickly turned aggressive, necessitating a stem-cell transplant that triggered a massive infection, robbing him of his eyesight and nearly of his life. Kate acted as his full-time aide to keep him alive, coordinating his treatments, making doctors’ appointments, calling insurance companies, filling dozens of prescriptions, cleaning commodes, administering IV drugs. She became so burned out that, when she took an online quiz on caregiver self-care, her result cheerily declared: “You’re already toast!” Through it all, she felt profoundly alone, but, as she later learned, she was in fact one of millions: an invisible army of family caregivers working every day in America, their unpaid labor keeping our troubled healthcare system afloat. Because our culture both romanticizes and erases the realities of care work, few caregivers have shared their stories publicly. As the baby-boom generation ages, the number of family caregivers will continue to grow. Readable, relatable, timely, and often raw, Already Toast—with its clear call for paying and supporting family caregivers—is a crucial intervention in that conversation, bringing together personal experience with deep research to give voice to those tasked with the overlooked, vital work of caring for the seriously ill.




The Caregiver


Book Description

From the critically acclaimed author of This Burns My Heart comes a “luminous mother-daughter saga” (Entertainment Weekly) about a young woman who is forced to flee 1980s Brazil for California, and in doing so unearths the hidden life of her enigmatic mother. Mara Alencar’s mother Ana is her moon, her sun, her stars. Ana, a struggling voice-over actress, is an admirably brave and recklessly impulsive woman who does everything in her power to care for her little girl in perilous 1980s Rio de Janeiro. With no other family or friends her own age, Ana eclipses Mara’s entire world. They take turns caring for each other—in ways big and small. But who is Ana, really? As she grows older, Mara slowly begins to piece together the many facets of Ana’s complicated life—a mother, a rebel, and always, an actress. When Ana becomes involved with a civilian rebel group attempting to undermine the city’s cruel Police Chief, their fragile arrangement begins to unravel. Mara is forced to flee the only home she’s ever known, for California, where she lives as an undocumented immigrant, caregiving for a dying woman. It’s here that she begins to grapple with her turbulent past and starts to uncover vital truths—about her mother, herself, and what it means to truly take care of someone. A “lovely and heartbreaking” (People) story that is “simultaneously dreamlike and visceral” (The Atlantic), The Caregiver is “a beautiful testament to Samuel Park’s extraordinary talents as a storyteller…that reads, in some moments, like a thriller—and, in others, like a meditation on what it means to be alive…A ferocious page-turner with deep wells of compassion for the struggles of the living—and the sins of the dead” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).




Patient Safety and Quality


Book Description

"Nurses play a vital role in improving the safety and quality of patient car -- not only in the hospital or ambulatory treatment facility, but also of community-based care and the care performed by family members. Nurses need know what proven techniques and interventions they can use to enhance patient outcomes. To address this need, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), with additional funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has prepared this comprehensive, 1,400-page, handbook for nurses on patient safety and quality -- Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. (AHRQ Publication No. 08-0043)." - online AHRQ blurb, http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nurseshdbk/




Helping Yourself Help Others


Book Description

"In Helping Yourself Help Others, former first lady Rosalynn Carter draws upon her own experiences and those of hundreds of others to offer reassuring, practical advice to caregivers. Long before the COVID-19 pandemic inspired national conversations about the vast undervaluing of unpaid caregiving, the dangers of burnout, and the merits of self-care for relief, Rosalynn Carter was shining a light on these matters and everything else that caregivers confront"--




How to Be Sick


Book Description

This life-affirming, instructive, and thoroughly inspiring book is a must-read for anyone who is - or who might one day be - sick. It can also be the perfect gift of guidance, encouragement, and uplifting inspiration to family, friends, and loved ones struggling with the many terrifying or disheartening life changes that come so close on the heels of a diagnosis of a chronic condition or life-threatening illness. Authentic and graceful, How to be Sick reminds us of our limitless inner freedom, even under high degrees of suffering and pain. The author - who became ill while a university law professor in the prime of her career - tells the reader how she got sick and, to her and her partner's bewilderment, stayed that way. Toni had been a longtime meditator, going on long meditation retreats and spending many hours rigorously practicing, but soon discovered that she simply could no longer engage in those difficult and taxing forms. She had to learn ways to make "being sick" the heart of her spiritual practice - and through truly learning how to be sick, she learned how, even with many physical and energetic limitations, to live a life of equanimity, compassion, and joy. And whether we ourselves are ill or not, we can learn these vital arts from Bernhard's generous wisdom in How to Be Sick.




Mosby's Textbook for the Home Care Aide


Book Description

Covering the essential content and procedures a home care aide needs to know, Mosby's Textbook for the Home Care Aide, 3rd Edition prepares you for success in this rapidly growing field. A clear approach makes the book easy to use and understand, featuring hundreds of full-color photographs and drawings along with step-by-step procedures for skills performed by home care aides. Updated and expanded in this edition are chapters on meeting the client's nutritional needs and on getting and keeping a job. Written by home care experts Joan Birchenall and Eileen Streight, this textbook prepares you for the many types of situations you may encounter as a home care aide. Hundreds of full-color photos and drawings depict key ideas and clearly demonstrate procedure steps. Procedures provide step-by-step, easy-to-understand instructions on performing important skills and tasks. UNIQUE! A cast of caregivers, including a supervisor and four home care aides, are highlighted in scenarios that provide realistic examples of the types of situations you are likely to encounter in the home care environment. Guidelines for Observing, Recording, and Reporting (ORR) are highlighted throughout the text, emphasizing the home care aide's responsibilities for observing and documenting the client's condition and care. Key considerations and reminders are presented in color font to emphasize the importance of performing these actions. Objectives and Key Terms in each chapter focus your attention on essential information. Chapter summaries and study questions review the key points in each chapter. Updated/Expanded Meeting the Client's Nutritional Needs chapter includes the new MyPlate food guide and new nutrition guidelines. Updated/Expanded Getting a Job and Keeping It chapter reflects the job prospects and challenges of today, including the realities of moving between states and differences in certification requirements. Updated equipment photos are included. Evolve companion website includes skills competency checklists and an audio glossary.




Prisoners Without Bars


Book Description

“Laugh! Cry! G-A-S-P!" This heart-wrenching and triumphant love story is a tale of advocacy and caregiving. Donna's husband, David, stumbled into their bedroom, his hand covering a blood-filled eye from a brain hemorrhage. Donna called 9-1-1. David slipped into a coma. At that moment, Donna was thrust onto the path of caregiver for her best friend and the love of her life. In her debut memoir, Donna shares how a neurosurgeon said that David would make a "great organ donor." She writes of arrogant doctors, uncaring visitors, insensitive ambulance drivers, and problematic nurses. She also tells of the many compassionate doctors, nurses, therapists, staff, strangers, family members, and friends who helped them on their journey. Donna compellingly describes her ability to appear positive as she experiences the horror of making life-or-death decisions. As her world crashes, she credits laughter as her lifesaver. More than thirteen years later, Donna and David are living a "new normal" together.




The Fifth Season


Book Description

"A memoir of caregiving; illuminates the difficulties of and ethical questions surrounding end-of-life care in America"--Provided by publisher"--




Dementia Caregivers Share Their Stories


Book Description

Filled with practical advice and innovative approaches to problem-solving, this essential guidebook presents the powerful words of people who have had to care for a parent or spouse with dementia. The interviewees talk about the challenges faced during every step in the caregiving process, from recognizing early symptoms of dementia to dealing with its advanced stages.