The Importance of Caregiver Contracts

A goal that my clients bring up in meetings time after time is that they wish to stay in their own homes for as long as possible. Many people, however, find the cost of bringing help into their homes to be daunting. Elders are increasingly turning to their adult children for in-home care. As...
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Thrown into the Deep End

Did you see Michelle Singletary’s column this weekend in the Boston Globe? I like her column, The Color of Money. She writes in a straight-forward, honest manner, with guidance targeted at “regular folks” like myself. This weekend she wrote about essentially being thrown into the deep end of the...
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More Reasons to Write up a Caregiver Contract

I've been writing a lot about caregiver contracts lately. That's because they represent the ideal solution for so many families. Many children become part-time or even full-time caregivers for their aging parents. Sometimes a child needs to be paid for this - usually that is the only way she can afford to leave her...
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Caregiver: Care for Yourself, Too

Caregiver burnout is a dangerous side-effect of dedicating your time and energies to the care of a loved one. All the physical activity, combined with the worry, isolation, and frustration, make for a dangerous recipe. Families frequently come to me when Mom got sick from the exhaustion of caring for Dad.  Another common scenario...
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HBO’s The Alzheimer’s Project: Caregivers

This weekend I watched the film Caregivers (don’t you just love On Demand?).  One theme that jumped out was the isolation that caregivers suffer.  Several of the film’s stars (I think that’s a good name for them) talked about how very quietly the invitations to events and gatherings stopped.  Not only does...
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Caregiver Stress Check Quiz

If you are a caregiver for a person with Alzheimer’s or any other debilitating disease, take a look at the National Alzheimer’s Association’s Caregiver Stress Check.  It’s very well done.  Based on the issues you check off (ex., you feel like you are doing everything yourself with no backup, you think that your...
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