National Caregiver Day is the first Tuesday of April in Canada.

“More than 8 million family and friend caregivers in Canada are providing care in the home. Most caregivers will feel unprepared and overwhelmed at some point. If you are caring for someone who is ill or living with mobility challenges, these modules are for you.

Access them anytime of the day or night, as many times as you need, and at no cost (FREE) via https://www.virtualhospice.ca/caregiving/

These modules include useful information, strategies, and suggestions for preparing for and providing care as illness advances:

-Strategiesfor difficult conversations

-Video demonstrations of caregiving tasks 

-Guidance for recognizing and managing symptoms

-Suggestions for accessing programs and services

-Ways to care for yourself

Content is arranged in chapters and pages. Click a Chapter to see the pages and topics covered. You can move through the module pages using the list on the left-hand side or using the arrows at the bottom of the page. To return to the home page click the logo at the top left of the screen. Some modules include video clips showing how to do caregiving tasks or people sharing their experiences.”

Source: Canadian Virtual Hospice 

If you have questions, email info@virtualhospice.ca

#NationalCaregiverDay #CelebrateACaregiver

April 2nd is National Carers Day

About National Carers Day

In April 2010, the Parliament of Canada unanimously adopted a motion declaring the first Tuesday in April “The Invisible Work Day.” This day was designated to recognize the importance of the “invisible” unpaid work carried out by parents and caregivers on behalf of their children and aging family members, as well as the volunteer work done in the community.  Recognizing that caregivers come from all walks of life and take on many roles, the first Tuesday in April is a special day where we can recognize all caring Canadians.

#NationalCarersDay

Source: https://www.carerscanada.ca/national-carers-day/

Practising compassion in an uncompassionate health system. Hearts in Healthcare

"Yet, amidst the storm, some remarkable health professionals create a circle of calm. They go about their work in an unhurried way, finding time to greet their patients, put them at ease, listening deeply and offering kindness and compassion. They don’t neglect their clinical tasks, indeed they seem to get the work done with quiet efficiency. These inspiring workers go home with satisfaction and joy in their hearts. How is that possible?"

Source: Hearts in Healthcare Practising compassion in an uncompassionate health system 

Who Will Care for the Caregivers?

"If it’s a certainty that all of us will experience illness, it’s a near-certainty that most of us will care for someone with an illness. But our current conception of patient and disease seems too narrow. It may help to recognize that while patients’ needs come first, illness is often a family affair.

For many, caring for a loved one provides tremendous purpose and fulfillment. It can deepen relationships and offer the time and space for connection where it otherwise might not exist. It seems that the goal, then, should not be to reduce family caregiving, but to reduce its burdens".

#Canadian Virtual #Hospice. Information and #Support on #Palliative and #End-of-Life #Care, #Loss and #Grief. @VirtualHospice

"The Canadian Virtual Hospice provides support and personalized information about palliative and end-of-life care to patients, family members, health care providers, researchers and educators."

Observing the Wish to #Die at #Home. #hpm

“We often hear from family members that they find great value in our Guide for Family Caregivers, detailed information on how to handle such common end-of-life symptoms as breathing problems, pain, changes in behavior and sleeplessness. The piece details several signs that may signal a loved one is transitioning from life to death, such as no appetite or urine output, and changes in breathing sounds and patterns.

We encourage people to be a calm presence, to hold the loved ones hand, to call in others who wish to be present, as well as call Hospice for support. Hearing is the final sense to go, so we encourage family members to continue speaking to their loved one, reassuring that everything is all right.

‘What we are trying to do is normalize what they are going through,’ says Joel. Death, after all, is not an aberration but a universal end we all one day meet. ‘We want the family members to know what the very end of life looks like and what they can do when the time comes. What can they do? Literally, just hold your loved one’s hand’.”

#Memories of a #Caregiver - Honoring Voices: Walking Alongside The #Caregiver. #hpm

In Part 2 of our "Honored Voices" series, we listen to bereaved caregivers and support professionals and what can be learned from their experience. This video is designed for those who are currently supporting caregivers or those who have experienced the loss of a loved one.

What Luck Means Now

"The day we learned the news, just 15 months had passed since our wedding on a New Hampshire hillside with friends and children gathered, fireworks exploding and a band backing us up as we performed a duet on a John Prine song and talked about the trips we would take, the olive trees we would plant. Each of us had been divorced almost 25 years. How lucky, everyone said, that we had found each other when we did.

Now, luck means having this operation. In four hours, luck will mean getting a call from a nurse who says: 'They’ve reached the tumor. They’re going in for it'."

When Your Loved One Is Ready for #Hospice Care - and You Aren't. #HPM

“And I had a lot of questions about hospice care, including whether I could stop it if I changed my mind later. (He told me I could stop it at any time, for any reason, and that if I changed my mind again I could resume the services.) The conversation was incredibly stressful. At one point I realized I was holding my breath.

After answering all my questions, Doug looked at me kindly and said, ‘You know, Marie, the real question for the caregiver is how to help the patient have the highest possible quality of life in the time that is remaining.’

That completely changed my thinking about the situation. It gave me a new and positive goal - to bring Ed as much happiness as possible. It led me to think about all the special things I could do for Ed -- visiting him more often, taking my little Shih Tzu to see him, having that violinist come back and play another concert, reading to him from the newspaper, and buying him even more of the stuffed animals he loved so much.”

Bearing Witness to Suffering. ~ Laura van Dernoot Lipsky

In this talk, Laura offers us a window into the cumulative toll that can occur when we are exposed to the suffering, hardship, crisis or trauma of humans, other living beings, or the planet itself. Held within a larger context of systematic oppression and liberation theory, we'll dive into what gets hard and how to work toward reconciling it both individually and collectively.