A Voice For The Caregiver

Read-aloud stories for the elderly.

An all-in-one guide for helping caregivers of individuals with brain injury or degenerative disease to address speech, language, voice, memory, and swallowing impairment and to distinguish these problem areas from healthy aging. Advances in science mean that people are more likely to survive a stroke or live for many years after being diagnosed with a degenerative disease such as Parkinson's. But the communication deficits that often accompany a brain injury or chronic neurologic condition—including problems with speech, language, voice, memory, and/or swallowing—can severely impact quality of life. If you are a caregiver coping with these challenges, this all-in-one book can help you and your loved one. Written by a team of experts in speech-language pathology, each chapter focuses on a different aspect of caregiving and features relatable patient examples. Providing answers to common questions, definitions of complex medical terms, and lists of helpful resources, this book also: • touches on expected, age-related changes in communication, memory, swallowing, and hearing abilities, to name a few • offers practical strategies for caregivers to cope with speech, language, and voice problems and to maximize their loved one's ability to communicate • reveals how caregivers can assist their loved ones with swallowing challenges to maintain good nutrition and hydration • provides crucial information on how caregivers can handle grief and take care of themselves during the caregiving process • explains how to incorporate the arts, as well as a loved one's hobbies and interests, into their communication or memory recovery This comprehensive book will allow readers to take a more informed and active role in their loved one's care. Contributors: Marissa Barrera, Frederick DiCarlo, Lea Kaploun, Elizabeth Roberts, Teresa Signorelli Pisano

Linda Abbit, founder of Tender Loving Eldercare and a veteran of the caregiving industry, shares her advice on taking care of an older parent or loved one and how to handle everything that goes along with this dramatic life change. Being a caregiver can be a difficult role. It requires patience, tenderness, selflessness, and hard work. Providing care for someone, whether it’s a parent, a loved one, or as a professional requires a high level of self-love and self-care. But while it may be a rewarding experience to care for a loved one, the emotional and physical stress of caregiving can lead to burnout and exhaustion—causing caregivers to put themselves and their own well-being in the background. How can you fulfill your role as a caregiver without losing yourself? Conscious Caregiver teaches you how to navigate caring for your loved one, whether it’s full-time in-house caregiving or hiring support from outside services. With information on how to talk to your loved ones about the situation, handle the emotional stress, stay financially secure, and take the time to care for yourself, this guide can help you care for your loved one and yourself at the same time.

Millions of peopleâ€"infants, children, adults, and their familiesâ€"are currently coping with serious illness in the United States. Efforts are intensifying to improve overall care quality through the delivery of person-centered and family-oriented services, for patients of all ages and across disease stages, care settings, and specialties. While aging Baby Boomers are increasing the proportion of patients in the Medicare population over time, the sickest and most vulnerable patients needing health system support and other services to meet their complex needs can be found across the age spectrum and in a broad range of care settings, from perinatal care to geriatric care. Recognizing the need to thoughtfully consider and address the challenges and opportunities in efforts to improve care quality and value, the Roundtable on Quality Care for People with Serious Illness of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held the public workshop Integrating the Patient and Caregiver Voice into Serious Illness Care, on December 15, 2016, in Washington, DC. This workshop was the first in a series planned by the roundtable, and was designed specifically to bring together diverse personal perspectives and experiences about priorities and values that are important to patients and families coping with serious illness, and to consider solutions that support integration of these priorities and values in practice. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Forgotten Faces: Family Caregiver Voices takes readers directly into the homelives of actual caregivers to cognitively impaired family members. This captivating nonfiction narrative rotates through the entire caregiving journeys of "Fred," "Janice," "Alice," and "Yvonne," whose wife, second husband, mother, and grandfather were diagnosed with Alzheimer's dementia. Dr. Tiller's personal and professional commentary compliments their earnest firsthand accounts to provide solace for prior caregivers, empowerment for new or future caregivers, and startling insights for their families, friends, neighbors, employers, or policymakers. A portion of Forgotten Faces: Family Caregiver Voices proceeds will be directed to assist caregiver support groups. "Forgotten Faces: Family Caregiver Voices captures the very essence of the limits placed on caregivers and offers an extraordinary view into their world." -KATHLEEN M. WINTERS, MS, LN - Executive Director, Alzheimer's Family Organization "Forgotten Faces is a compassionate look at an imminent problem that will touch most Americans' lives in the next two decades. This book is one you will want to keep as you plan to take care of someone dealing with cognitive impairment or even plan your own care." -ANAND KUMAR, PhD "There is a bonus in this book. Tiller explains the necessary legal documents that must be prepared and signed before the onset of this dementia. His segments on financial planning and the need for long-term care insurance are invaluable." -GREGORY G. GAY, P.A. - Certified Elder Law Attorney

Life happens. For author Julie Annette Bennett and her husband, Scott, their love for each other became the basis for an extraordinary journey that would change their lives forever in unimaginable ways. When Scott collapsed in the Target parking lot on March 4, 2007, his wife of fifteen years believed he had died. As Julie called 911, she thought, Oh my God! I’m not ready. Please don’t take him yet. Please God, don’t let him die! That moment in time began a medical journey for the couple that no one should ever have to live through. Together they faced uncertainties that would test Scott’s strength of spirit and fill Julie with a courage that would guide her as she became a caregiver for the man she loved. Now Julie shares their story in a loving tribute to Scott and to their beautiful life together; she also offers a helpful guide for all caregivers encountering their own challenges. This personal narrative shares the story of two lives that embarked on a sixteen-year journey through chronic illnesses that included Alzheimer’s and eventual grief, offering advice for caregivers along the way.

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).