Hope For The Caregiver

There are 65.7 million caregivers in America, making up 29 percent of the U.S. adult population. Where does the caregiver turn when dealing with their own need for encouragement and renewal?

As You Give Care, God is Caring for You Caring for someone with health needs can be emotionally, physically, and spiritually draining. Sarah Forgrave has spent considerable time, both as someone struggling with serious medical issues and as the family member of a chronically ill patient, and she understands the many challenges you face in your caregiving role. Sarah wants to share what she discovered with you—peace through prayer, solace in Scripture, and unending hope from a Heavenly Father who never stops loving you. Each heartfelt prayer and devotion is intended to help you navigate the complex set of emotions that come with caregiving. Read it front to back or go directly to the devotion addressing how you feel at any given moment...when you need it most. Take comfort in the truth that God knows your every need as a caregiver and is always there for you amid your toughest trials.

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).

A moving, intimate, and compassionate book that chronicles the experiences of a group of long-term caregivers—spouses, parents, and friends of the elderly and ill—illuminating critical issues of old age, end-of-life care, medical reform, and social policy—and “providing comfort in the time-honored form of shared experience” (The Minneapolis Star-Tribune). In 2010, journalist Nell Lake began sitting in on the weekly meetings of a local hospital’s caregivers support group. Soon members invited her into their lives. For two years, she brought empathy, insight, and an eye for detail to understanding Penny, a fifty-year-old botanist caring for her aging mother; Daniel, a survivor of Nazi Germany who tends his ailing wife; William, whose wife suffers from Alzheimer’s; and others with whom all caregivers will identify. Witnessing acts of devotion and frustration, lessons in patience and in letting go, Lake illuminates the intimate exchanges of caregiving and care-receiving and considers important and timely social issues: How can we care for the aging, ill, and dying with skill and compassion, even as the costs and labors of care increase? How might the medical profession take into account the needs of caregivers as well as patients? In The Caregivers Nell Lake shares a thoughtful and tenderly reported depiction of the real-life predicaments that evoke these crucial questions. With more and more people spending their late years ill and frail, and 43 million Americans already caring for family members over age fifty, this is an important chronicle of a widely shared experience and a public concern. “The Caregivers is as elegantly constructed as a novel, but more than that, Lake writes about these people with such warmth and vividness that they feel as memorable as our favorite fictional characters. It is a beautifully written account” (The Boston Globe).

This guide identifies the ideas and actions that can harm both caregivers and their loved one—from the author of Hope for the Caregiver. A caregiver’s journey often contains beliefs and behaviors that act like emotional landmines and can cause serious damage. Avoiding these landmines, while finding a path to safety, requires caregivers to hear from someone with experience they can trust. Author and radio host Peter Rosenberger draws upon three decades of caring for his wife through a medical nightmare to discuss seven caregiver landmines that wreak havoc in a caregiver’s life. Helping them navigate to a place of safety, 7 Caregiver Landmines equips fellow caregivers to live a healthier, calmer, and even more joyful life—because “healthy caregivers make better caregivers!” Praise for Peter Rosenberger and Hope for the Caregiver “With tenacity, tenderness, and humor Peter Rosenberger brings hope to those who find themselves in the overwhelming and sometimes lonely role of caregiver.” —Amy Grant, Grammy Award–winning singer/songwriter, author and actress “In a world hung up on trying to make sense out of hard times, Peter drives the point home that ‘we don’t have to understand—God understands, and that’s enough.’ This is THE book for caregivers, written by one with scars and immense credibility.” —Jeff Foxworthy, comedian, author, television host “Peter Rosenberger was the keynote speaker at the NYS Caregiving & Respite Coalition™’s annual conference. Through humor, he gave practical advice to caregivers living the care partnering experience. More importantly, he brought hope to professionals and family caregivers who deal with the struggles of caregiving day in and out.” —Ann Marie Cook, President/CEO of Lifespan

Caregiver Shouse celebrates spiritual and practical lessons learned on her unscripted yet rewarding journey with her mother through Alzheimer's disease.

Resource added for the Gerontology program 105441.