Caregiver stories(videos)

“When you encounter something and you don’t know what to do with it, you have several choices: you can either take advantage of what is available, you can run screaming saying I can’t do this, or you can create your own solution.”  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlVL5Estn-I Older adults are becoming the primary caregivers to their aged parents. A caregiver of an older parent may want to do a lot for their loved one but may not know how to do it. Family caregivers Read More

“When someone’s older we seem to do more, but what we really should be doing is less…slow it down. Stop rushing.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpPyjbcIPlY Caregivers think that older adults need a lot of professional medical help. While caring for older parents, the caregiver feels a huge weight of responsibility and wants to provide the best medical help as possible. In reality, unnecessary procedures by healthcare systems can end up causing more harm than good to older people because today, every symptom of Read More

“It negatively affects the spouse caregiver’s and the patient’s relationship… the marital tension escalates. And that happens in all marriages…this is the natural history of what happens in a household when there is serious medical illness.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duhJHedj82g Frances Lewis, a scientist talks about a caregiver’s journey, particularly that of a caregiver who is also a spouse. According to research, there are four ways in which the illness in a patient’s body jumps into the spouse or the family. The first one Read More

“The reason it’s important to have a plan, is that it gives you more options. It helps avoid family arguments and it helps you to be prepared to take care of yourself when you’re caregiving for others” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fq98i02kzcM It is said that, out of all the people we know, half of them would become caregivers within the next 5-10 years, if they aren’t already. However, people tend to avoid talking about caregiving unless a major life change occurs in their loved Read More

“We are afraid of endings… We are afraid of seeing our parents grow smaller… We are scared so we deny it.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c2grKhiKEw Amy O’Rourke has been working with the elderly for most of her life. While she mentions how much she loves her job, she shares many instances of her experience with elderly patients and their families. Amy describes three different ways to lower stress while dealing with the elderly population. The major reason for stress is due to the Read More

“the airlines tell us [to] put your mask on first before you help your loved one…I had to learn that if I didn’t become selfish there was no way I was going to survive this…” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku5piyormwE&feature=youtu.be Dave Nassaney and his wife lived a happy life for over 20 years. They were looking forward to spending the rest of their lives carefree after educating and getting their daughters married off. But life took a turn when his wife started complaining about Read More

“Love them, but love yourself too. Support them but support yourself too. And help them but allow yourself to be helped also. Take care of yourself…..take super care of yourself”  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3RQ9-hOuIE&t=7s Linda Ercoli works with people with Alzheimers disease and counsels their caregivers. Linda lost her parents at a young age and naturally,never thought she would have to be a caregiver to an elderly person. Caregiving being what it is, fell in her lap when her friend and mentor fell Read More

“I thought I was doing her a service, in fact it was the other way around. .. With any Alzheimer’s, Dementia, there’s a certain amount of frustration and sadness for everyone around..” https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=22&v=HSfMx6Mr1eE&feature=emb_logo Tony Luciani, shares how his journey began as a caregiver when his mother, Alia, moved in with him. He expresses his grief of seeing her suffer from Dementia and her transformation from being a beautiful, young and determined lady into a frail and thin woman. Tony, being Read More

“Caregiving is an invisible art .. developed through experience, and experience matters ..” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7ZIWDLz5dE   Dr. Pranab was the primary caregiver to his wife who was diagnosed with metastatic colon cancer. After retiring from an Assistant Headmaster’s post, he devoted all his time to looking after his wife. The treatment went on for 2 and a half years, with many challenges to be faced. Throughout this stressful phase, he did his best to stay strong and take care of his Read More

“You need to sacrifice a lot…but I never regret it.…When you want to do something do it full heartedly… ….of course you have to take care of yourself also” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExkzSqeCtnA&feature=youtu.be From a young age Gita liked to take care of other people, she always put other people’s needs ahead of her own and felt great satisfaction in doing that. When her husband was unwell, she became the primary caregiver. She took on the role without complaining and sacrificed everything to Read More