Caregiver Concerns

May 23rd, 2012

Special thanks to Ruth Tamari for contributing as this month’s guest blogger.   Although we do different work, in many ways, our work is complementary and our views are overlapping.  Please check out my guest post, “Secrets of Self-Care While Caregiving” on her blog!  Enjoy!

Tags: care-partner, caregiver

April 12th, 2012

“Making the Moments Count: Leisure Activities for Caregiving Relationships,” has a gentle, compassionate approach that encourages activities that will create memories to last a lifetime.  I highly recommend this book by Joanne Ardolf Decker, PhD.  The author is a professor emeritus of Therapeutic Recreation at Mankato State University in Minnesota.  Even though it was published [...]

Tags: care-partner, therapeutic recreation

February 22nd, 2012

Therapeutic Recreation has its roots in the military, believe it or not.  You could say the first known accounts of such work was done by Florence Nightingale during the Crimean War (1853-1856) where she became best known for her special work in caring for wounded soldiers.  It wasn’t until the year 1981 that the National [...]

Tags: caregiver burnout, journal, Pranakriya Yoga, therapeutic recreation

January 11th, 2012

Sage advice from an 84-year-old when asked to share thoughts about happiness. This and many other lessons are shared in a new book called “30 Lessons for Living,” which offers practical advice from more than 1,000 older Americans from all socioeconomic backgrounds. The interviews are a part of the Cornell Legacy Project and can be [...]

Tags: Cornell University, gerontologist, Karl Pillemer, successful aging

December 27th, 2011

Amazon.com Widgets<A HREF=”http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?rt=tf_mfw&ServiceVersion=20070822&MarketPlace=US&ID=V20070822%2FUS%2Fspactime-20%2F8001%2F2a83b13d-23a0-4265-afff-18b4087bcea3&Operation=NoScript”>Amazon.com Widgets</A> Caring Questions is a wonderfully written and very short book that is filled with a variety of conversation starters for care partners. Jennifer Antkowiak speaks from deep personal experience. She is a caregiver herself with five children and one step-child. She shared in the end-of-life journeys of her own mother, her [...]

Tags: barriers, mindfulness

November 23rd, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving! We all have so much to be thankful for.  When things are going well in our lives it is easy to come up with ideas of things we appreciate.  During difficult times it can be more challenging to bring thoughts of gratitude to mind. My senior year of high school, a friend of [...]

Tags: gratitude, journal

November 10th, 2011

November is a month where the words thankfulness, gratitude and abundance jump to the forefront of my mind.  Thank YOU, caregivers, for all that you do! Did you know that November is National Family Caregivers Month?  It is coordinated by the National Family Caregivers Association.  Honoring caregivers in this way started in 1994 with National [...]

Tags: caregiver burnout

September 7th, 2011

I am so grateful that one of my groups on LinkedIn shared this video today that I simply had to pass on because it was so amazing.  It is a trailer for a documentary called “Old On Purpose.” What makes it so amazing, to me, is that it exemplifies all the reasons why I have always [...]

August 29th, 2011

          Just wanted to share a link to a YouTube video recently posted by researchers at my alma mater, Penn State.  Researchers in the Nursing Department in the College of Health and Human Development are developing techniques and strategies for dealing effectively with difficult dementia behaviors such as delivery of oral [...]

August 10th, 2011

Amazon.com Widgets This book comes highly recommended from space & time.  I will allow you the pleasure of reading it for yourself, but wanted to offer some of what I found to be highlights of the book or points that really resonated with me in both my personal and professional life as a recreational therapist. [...]