I'm always reading others post of recommendations for books, shows and podcasts about caregiving. I read them and I say to myself I'll look it up later, then later I can't find the recommendations. How about a thread of just recommendations.
You all have so much awesome information! I'd love to have it in one section, I think it would help others, too.
Youtube.
Quite honestly you can learn how to do almost ANYTHING on youtube just by typing it in.
You can even find an 11 year old to teach you how to reset and reuse a tomcat one-time-use mousetrap!
They will teach to how to turn a person in bed for changing and how to do basic tube feeding and catheter care. They are a WEALTH of information as are company websites at times.
The two I always recommend are as follows:
Never Simple, a memoir by Liz Scheier about her mother's lifelong mental illness, and about Ms S.'s attempts to help and protect her. A willing, determined and smart woman, she worked with the City and State of NY, using every social safety net she could find. It was all to no avail, and while her mother lived a long life it was one in which she was often homeless or in a one room walkup somewhere, and in a bad state. BarbBrooklyn is an acquaintance I think of the editor of this book, just by accidental happenstance, and she recommends it all the time as well.
For those asking on AC about what to do with mentally ill seniors, the sad answer is almost always that there is nothing we can do. Society has decided they can sift down through the cracks and no one can or will do anything for them.
The next book I have LOVED is
MotherLode by Gretchen Staebler.
Ms. S. was divorced and living across the country when her sister sent out the SOS from Washington State that Mom, in her mid 90s, needed a livein helper now. And she traveled cross country with her kitty to do the job, thinking to do it for a year and no more. She ended up doing it all and doing it for a long time, as Mom, despite her frequent bowel obstructions, etc. lived to be over 100. Lordy, WHAT A JOURNEY. And along with the multiple crises there is the beautiful sense of history--of the whole of a life. And the marvelous descriptions of place. My daughter lives on the Sound in Washington State, and it is a peaceful place that heals my soul over and over again. And Ms. S. brings it home to me.
MANY OTHERS:
notable among them Death in Slow Motion, another memoir and this one by Eleanor Cooney about her Audubon Biographer mom's descent into Alzheimer's. I won't soon forget the vodka bottle hidden behind the car seat.
Reading has always been the light for me. It has saved me a billion times. Reading is what gets me through. I do not connect well with PEOPLE at all, but with their words? I'm in.
I'm sorry barb didn't see that it was there already .
But Codependency no more is the best
Atul Ganade author. . Being Mortal;Medication and What Matters in the End.
Medicare.gov
AreaAgencyonAging.org
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