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A Poignant Focus on the Heart of One Receiving Care

At 46, Jenn has a unique perspective on caregiver stress. She is the one receiving care. Only a few years ago, she rose before dawn and slipped into the frigid Manitoba winter to run, training for one of the many marathons in which she competed. She’d started to take classes to put her in a […]

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Caregivers: Practical Value Found Here

The 5 Tips Newsletter isn’t just for hands-on caregivers of elderly people. It’s for anyone who has an elder in their family or among their friends, and wants to learn better ways to support and love them. It contains 3 blog posts discussing some aspect of caring, 5 quick tips related to that month’s theme,

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Surprising, Little Known Ways To Find Your Tribe

I tucked the carefully crafted letter in backpacks and diaper bags. When I met the parents at the door to pick up their children from my daycare, I didn’t say a word. In a few hours, the phone started to ring as my monumental decision reached its tentacles into the lives it would affect. I

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Feel Empowered With An Epic Medical Team

We sometimes play a game with a parachute. Everyone in a circle holds a loop attached to the colourful fabric and pulls to keep it tight. A ball in the centre rolls from side to side, sometimes bouncing if someone gets enthusiastic and suddenly pulls tight. If a player slacks off, the ball falls to

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Seize the Opportunity to Build Your Team

“It takes a village to raise a child is an African proverb which means that an entire community of people must interact with children for those children to experience and grow in a safe and healthy environment. The villagers look out for the children.”1 The concept of the community participating in the raising of children is

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Do your Doctor’s Manners Make You Angry?

Melanie shifted in the uncomfortable, straight-backed chair and glanced at her watch. It hadn’t moved since the last time she looked, and compulsively staring at it wasn’t doing a thing. Mom had mercifully fallen asleep in the chair beside her after almost an hour of meaningless chatter, pacing and protests loud enough that everyone in

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After A Frightening Diagnosis Ask These 5 Powerful Questions

Bill and I and the doctor were crowded into a tiny examination room, peering at the computer screen. A week ago he’d had a serious event which brought him to the emergency room. His cardiologist was there that evening, and did multiple tests. We stared at the screen where the results were displayed. “Idiopathic Cardiac

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Do You Have The Right Doctor?

Older people’s bodies aren’t the same as younger people’s. Duh. Am I a master of stating the obvious? But there’s more to it than you might realize. And the implications for you and your elder might be something you haven’t considered. What are the Differences? By no means a comprehensive list, here are a few

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Becoming a Care Partner Overnight

Meet Janice. She has a family; two teenagers and a twelve-year old, a husband who travels, so is not home for the day-to-day running of the house, and a mother who helps out with the kids. Mom is a young eighty who walks every day, reads the paper, is conversant in politics and plays a

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Dealing With Change

Millie’s family had just been through some horrendous months with her care. She was in heart failure, and it led to so many problems. Her legs swelled and leaked, her mood was all over the map, and she was seeing things that weren’t there. Sometimes she was short of breath and needed oxygen. She wasn’t

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