Showing titles in Long-Term & Elder Care

Whether he's initiating a coup d'état against new regulations with the residents, or forging a bond with the 98-year-old who once called him a fat slut, Pope Lonergan's work is infinitely varied. This no-holds-barred account shows what life inside a care home is really like, for both residents and carers. Featuring night-time drama, incontinence pads and the uniquely dark humour of one double-amputee Alzheimer's patient, here you can learn everything you ever wanted to know (and a few things you probably really didn't) about Britain's care system.

Sarah Thebarge, a Yale-trained physician assistant, nearly died of breast cancer at age 27, but that did not end her deeply felt spiritual calling to medical missions in Africa. Risking her own health, she moved to Togo, West Africa - ranked by the United Nations as the least happy country in the world - to care for sick and suffering patients. Serving without pay in a mission hospital, she pondered the intersection of faith and medicine in her quest to help make the world "well".

The sea change of convenience and immediacy that has overtaken our lives has also led to a tremendous gap between what professionals and patients believe to be quality care. This has propagated the tragic environment where almost everyone hates going to the dentist. In The Patient First Manifesto, Dr. Bryan Laskin explains the counterintuitive reasons why patients still complain in our offices everyday, and why patients drive doctors crazy (or at least drive them to drink too often).

Today's caregivers are under extraordinary stress. Right now, we are all looking at the challenges of dealing with a huge aging population (every eight seconds a baby boomer turns 65). This leads to an increasing amount of care being rendered by people who aren’t health care professionals. This wonderful program speaks to all types of caregivers. It consists of a heart-to-heart talk, a reminder of the true source of healing, how the relationship with a caregiver can support this healing, and how important it is to recognize caregiver stress and prevent caregiver burnout.

End-of-life doula Anna Lyons and funeral director Louise Winter have joined forces to share a collection of the heartbreaking, surprising and uplifting stories of the ordinary and extraordinary lives they encounter every single day. From working with the living, the dying, the dead and the grieving, Anna and Louise reveal the lessons they’ve learned about life, death, love and loss. Together they’ve created a profound but practical guide to rethinking the one thing that’s guaranteed to happen to us all.

Lynne Tillman became one of nearly 53 million Americans who care for a sick family member when her mother developed an unusual and little understood condition called Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus. Instantly, Tillman's independent and spirited mother went from someone she knew to someone else, a woman entirely dependent on her children. Mothercare is both a cautionary tale and sympathetic guidance for anyone who suddenly becomes a caregiver, responsible for the life of another—a parent, loved or not, or a friend.

Perhaps someone in your family has been diagnosed with Alzheimer disease - or maybe you worry about developing memory loss yourself. In Is It Alzheimer's?, Dr. Peter V. Rabins, a top expert in the field, educates listeners by answering 101 often-asked questions about memory loss and dementia. Aimed at friends and family members of the estimated 5.1 million US adults with dementia, as well as adults who are concerned about developing dementia, the book offers helpful directions and comfort.

Everyone gets older, but not everybody approaches the aging process as they should. For many older adults, admitting that they are starting to lose some independence or become more reliant on friends and loved ones can feel scary or embarrassing. As their loved one, you might feel unsettled and frustrated as you recognize that these changes are happening.

Writer and founder of national online support group Caregiver Collective and herself a caregiver Jennifer N. Levin offers a comprehensive look at our current culture of care--with an emphasis on Millennial caregivers--providing a roadmap to solutions and an urgent call for policy change.

Rachel is a palliative care doctor who looked after some of the most gravely unwell patients on the COVID-19 wards of her hospital. Amid the tensions, fatigue and rising death toll, she witnessed the courage of patients and NHS staff alike in conditions of unprecedented adversity. For all the bleakness and fear, she found that moments that could stop you in your tracks abounded. People who rose to their best, upon facing the worst, as a microbe laid waste to the population. Her new book, Breathtaking, is an unflinching insider's account of medicine in the time of coronavirus.

Taking care of a family member who is ill, disabled, or dying requires courage, strength, commitment, and love. Now Terry Hargrave, an expert in counseling and caregiving, offers you help with a devotional written with your specific needs in mind. The morning prayers and evening reflections in this book are short and to the point. Strength and Courage for Caregivers weaves together powerful stories, practical advice, and the restorative promises of Scripture, reminding caregivers that they're not alone in this important yet all too often unacknowledged and underappreciated work.

Dr. Jean Marmoreo spent her career keeping people alive. But when the Supreme Court of Canada gave the green light to Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) in 2016, she became one of a small group of doctors who chose to immediately train themselves in this new field. Over the course of a single year, Marmoreo learns about end-of-life practices in bustling Toronto hospitals, in hospices, and in the facilities of smaller communities. She found that the needed services were often minimal—or non-existent.

Are you a sudden caregiver? When an unforeseen medical crisis robs someone you love of their health and well-being, do you feel caught off guard and ill-prepared for your caregiving role? Plenty of research confirms what you may already know: Caregiving is depleting, worrying, and exhausting, often leading to physical and emotional burnout, fear, and illness. Yet a growing body of evidence tells us that while caregiving is depleting, it can also be a source of strength, well-being, and purpose.

When her once-glamorous and witty novelist-mother got Alzheimer's, Eleanor Cooney moved her from her beloved Connecticut home to California in order to care for her. In tense, searing prose, punctuated with the blackest of humor, Cooney documents the slow erosion of her mother's mind, the powerful bond the two shared, and her own descent into drink and despair.

Simple, imaginative activities and expressive therapies designed for caregivers to engage and connect with people living with dementia. Finding the creativity in the journey through dementia is a challenge millions of people face. One in three Americans knows someone with the disease. This practical book offers caregivers hands-on ideas for meaningful, creative activities they can do with their patients, family members, or friends who have dementia.

We're living exciting bonus years - decades that our parents and grandparents didn't have. But how to navigate this complex terrain? AARP's Navigating Your Later Years for Dummies helps you and your family understand the growing range of opportunities. Even more importantly, it helps you chart the next steps to live the life you choose, as independently as you choose, no matter your specific circumstances and needs.

In this book, award-winning journalist Beth Baker tells the story of people devising innovative ways to live as they approach retirement, options that ensure they are surrounded by a circle of friends, family, and neighbors. Based on visits and interviews at many communities around the country, Baker weaves a rich tapestry of grassroots alternatives, some of them surprisingly affordable.

From decoding forgetfulness to managing daily routines, this practical guide offers valuablestrategies and compassionate advice for navigating the complexities of dementia caregiving. Equal parts empathy and practicality, it gives you the tools to cope with the demands ofcaring for a loved one with dementia.

This heart-wrenching and triumphant love story is a tale of advocacy and caregiving. Donna's husband, David, stumbled into their bedroom, his hand covering a blood-filled eye from a brain hemorrhage. Donna called 911. David slipped into a coma. At that moment, Donna was thrust onto the path of caregiver for her best friend and the love of her life. In her debut memoir, Donna shares how a neurosurgeon said that David would make a "great organ donor".

In the course of caring for the ill or dying, health care professionals are sometimes the only ones available to provide spiritual comfort to their patients. In our modern pluralistic society, where patients could come from any number of religious traditions, it can often be difficult to find exactly the right words in these situations.