The Accidental Caregiver

An invaluable resource for everyone concerned for the vulnerable people in their lives Estimates suggest almost half of the adult population will someday be a caregiver, whether for an aging parent, an ailing partner, or a disabled family member. It is a role that tends to fall on people without warning, and almost certainly without preparation or training. Even Dr. Kimberly Fraser, a nurse who ran a large home support business, found it a struggle when her father and husband needed increasing levels of care. In this timely and urgently needed book, she gives readers sound, practical advice on how to meet with humanity and optimism the bewildering array of challenges facing caregivers: where to find help, how to navigate a confusing healthcare system, how to deal with constant demands, how to keep one's own life from being overwhelmed by new responsibilities. Based on personal experience, prodigious research, and extensive interviews, The Accidental Caregiver is an invaluable resource for everyone concerned for vulnerable people in their lives and communities.

After publishing his memoir about caring for Holocaust survivor Maria Altmann during the last three years of her life, actor Gregor Collins thought that was the end of the story. Little did he know, losing Maria and sharing her with the world through his book was just the beginning. The Accidental Caregiver, Part 2 chronicles a new journey, one that Collins embarked on just as accidentally as he did the first. With his unplanned sequel, he shares with readers how his life was once again transformed—but this time, without Maria. With the same candor, grace, and raw vulnerability, Collins charts his course to far away lands like Australia and Mexico where he introduces Maria to other Holocaust survivors, then on a cross-country trek to New York, where he finds himself a caregiver once again, this time to Maria’s cousin Ruth, while he presents his book as a stage play to packed audiences. With each vivid new tale, Collins offers readers a fearless glimpse into his mind, which, though sometimes dark, is always honest. In the end, with Maria as his muse, Collins says yes to life and love in a way he could never have predicted—and wouldn’t have had any other way.

"From the most unlikely of unlikely romances comes a deeply felt, touching, humorous exploration of what love and age mean in today's world. I can't recommend this book highly enough." -- Stan Evans, Emmy-award winning writer, and author of Box of Mustaches When thirty-two-year-old actor Gregor Collins reluctantly interviewed for a job as a caregiver more out of a favor to a friend - he had no idea his life was about to change forever.Seconds into the chance meeting in 2008 with, it would turn out, a world-renowned Holocaust refugee named Maria Altmann, there was an unexplainable magic in the air - it felt as if they had already met. And Collins was suddenly thrown into a situation with which he had never before been confronted: caring for someone other than himself.Gregor offers us a personal and unprecedented look at Maria over the three intimate years he cared for her - her thrilling escape from the Nazis, her fight and subsequent win in the landmark Supreme Court Case to return original Gustav Klimt artwork that belonged to her family in Austria, and the extraordinary people she met along the way. But the real heart of the story transcends mere historical facts.Through a refreshingly raw portrayal of their unlikely and unbreakable bond, imbued with humorous, candid anecdotes about his mercurial relationship with Hollywood, Gregor takes us on a deeply emotional journey of how he opened up his heart to a 92-year-old woman in need - and in turn experienced the love he had been searching for his entire life.

On a sunny spring day, in an ordinary suburban kitchen, the phone rings. There’s been an accident. In one heartbeat, a family’s life is changed forever. After her husband, Hugh, is hit by a car while riding his bicycle, Rosemary Rawlins is plunged into twelve months of marathon caregiving, without the promise of a positive outcome. She works herself to the point of exhaustion to bring her grievously injured husband—who suffered a traumatic brain injury, necessitating the removal of half his skull—back home and back to himself. Then, as he slowly begins to reclaim his life, Rosemary falls apart. She can't sleep. Her heart pounds. Her joy and trust in the world dissolve into endless anxiety. She lays awake at night wondering how her marriage will survive. Will she ever be able to relate to Hugh again? What will become of their relationship? Their children? Do they recognize each other—literally—as the people they fell in love with and married decades ago? How can she let go of her fears? And what can she learn from them? Learning by Accident is a caregiver's story of ambiguous loss, family love, and emotional healing. This compelling personal account demonstrates with heart and humor that what we fear can be more debilitating than any physical injury. And that sometimes starting over is exactly what we need.

An invaluable resource for everyone concerned for vulnerable people in their lives and communities. Information sourcing, tracking, and organizing are daunting chores for many family caregivers. In this timely and urgently needed book, Dr. Kimberly Fraser, author of The Accidental Caregiver, provides you with a one-stop resource to delineate tasks and treatments and keep track of who's who in your caregiving world. She offers instructions on equipment and supplies, as well as advice on note-keeping, the gathering and storage of necessary documentation, and the logging of pertinent information related to the health and social needs of care recipients. Information management is a challenge for all caregivers. The Care Book is the convenient, user-friendly tool you need to stay organized and focused, and best look after the ones you love.

At a time when the work you are doing has never been more important, the life you save may be your own. The Accidental Caregiver?s Survival Guide gives caregivers the roadmap to caregiving without regret. Inside you will learn practical tips, tools, and coping strategies to recharge your caregiving energy so you can revitalize your own life while you care for your loved one. In this book, you will discover new ways to: ? Release the fear of not being good enough to meet the intensity of your loved one?s needs ? this will give you the strength you need to deal with the emotional roller-coasters that your loved one will inevitably go through during your caregiving journey ? Sharpen your caregiving expertise so you can collaborate, lead, and provide effective support to your loved one for the long-term ? Communicate with calm and clarity with your loved one, other family members, and involved professionals so you can deal with any situation ? no matter what · Care for your loved one in a way that leaves room for joy and freedom in your own life.

“. . . an engaging exploration of duty, guilt, and self-preservation. . . . A cleareyed consideration of difficult ethical and familial choices.” —KIRKUS REVIEWS Rachel likes to think of herself as a nice Jewish girl, dedicated to doing what’s honorable, just as her parents raised her to do. But when her husband, David, survives a plane crash and is left with severe brain damage, she faces a choice: will she dedicate her life to caring for a man she no longer loves, or walk away? Their marriage had been rocky at the time of the accident, and though she wants to do the right thing, Rachel doesn’t know how she is supposed to care for two kids in addition to a now irrational, incontinent, and seizure-prone grown man. And how will she manage to see her lover? But then again, what kind of selfish monster would refuse to care for her disabled husband, no matter how unhappy her marriage had been? Rachel wants to believe that she can dedicate her life to David’s needs, but knows in her heart it is impossible. Crash tackles a pervasive dilemma in our culture: the moral conflicts individuals face when caregiving for a disabled or cognitively impaired family member.

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).