Caregiver Support Services

HealthCentral: In reading “The Only Way Out,” I was especially taken with your advice about saying goodbye to your old life and letting go of what was before you can move on. This is a complicated process, and your book takes this on in depth, but could you give us a few brief tips that people can hold on to? Dr. Gail Gross: When an injury, such as death occurs in your life, it signals the end of one phase of your life and a transition into something new. The initial response is to run back to the familiar, even though the set that held your personality has cracked open.

Read the full interview with Dr. Gail Gross on HealthCentral. She tells us about working through grief:

Carol Bradley Bursack is the Candid Caregiver

MedicareFAQ – Medicare Resource Center

Support a caregiver or jump-start discussion in support groups with real stories - for bulk orders of Minding Our Elders e-mail Carol  

Once dementia is part of the family, it will be part of the holidays. The person with dementia will have good days and bad days and will change as the disease progresses. One thing we can count on, though, is that a loved one with dementia will need special consideration. How does a caregiver realistically cope with the holidays?

View the slideshow on HealthCentral for tips on celebrating Christmas when someone lives with dementia:

MedicareFAQ – Medicare Resource Center

Support a caregiver or jump-start discussion in support groups with real stories - for bulk orders of Minding Our Elders e-mail Carol  

Dear Candid Caregiver: I’m a divorced, middle-aged woman who’d very much enjoy a relationship but I can’t even date because my mother gets mad when I do. I thought that I’d left this behind after high school but I’m obviously wrong. Mom had a stroke two years ago and recovered as well as can be expected. Other than having a slight limp, there’s little physical sign of what she went through. The problem is that six months after her stroke, she was diagnosed with a combination of vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s dementia. I moved her in with me so that I could provide care when I wasn’t at work, and I hired care for when I was. This is turning out OK in general, but twice now I’ve been asked out by very nice men who’d I like to go to dinner with. Each time the man picked me up, Mom, who had a hired caregiver with her, screamed, swore, and had a complete meltdown...Mommy’s girl

Read the full article on HealthCentral about the issues that caregivers can have with dating:

Carol Bradley Bursack is the Candid Caregiver

MedicareFAQ – Medicare Resource Center

Support a caregiver or jump-start discussion in support groups with real stories - for bulk orders of Minding Our Elders e-mail Carol