Navigate your Caregiver Journey This Journey Guide is a companion study to the first book, Moments that Matter: A roadmap for caregivers and their loved ones with memory loss. They are designed to be used together. Learn and study the art of Moment-Making: Personal reflection Self-care Spiritual growth Support Groups Individual Study Age and ability appropriate activities Caregivers are Wounded Healers. A caregiver's wounds are many. Physical strain, anger, guilt, and grief can be daily stressors. Sharing your personal story with group members, as well as hearing theirs, helps to restore brokenness and brings healing. God is the great healer and guide on our journey. He is our strength when we are weary, our hope when we are discouraged, and our encourager when the stress of caregiving weighs us down. He allows us to find joy in the journey. "This insightful book and the Caregiver Support Group gave me ideas and guidelines that helped me love and care for my husband in new ways." .....Susie Nelson "This support group altered my perspective, my role changed from extending my mother's life to providing quality loving care." .....Manny Roman

With a foreword by Judy Woodruff, The Unexpected Journey of Caring is a practical guide to finding personal meaning in the 21st century care experience. Personal transformation is usually an experience we actively seek out—not one that hunts us down. Becoming a caregiver is one transformation that comes at us, requiring us to rethink everything we once knew. Everything changes—responsibilities, beliefs, hopes, expectations, and relationships. Caregiving is not just a role reserved for “saints”—eventually, everyone is drafted into the caregiver role. It’s not a role people medically train for; it’s a new type of relationship initiated by a loved one’s need for care. And it’s a role that cannot be quarantined to home because it infuses all aspects of our lives. Caregivers today find themselves in need of a crash course in new and unfamiliar skills. They must not only care for a loved one, but also access hidden community resources, collaborate with medical professionals, craft new narratives consistent with the changing nature of their care role, coordinate care with family, seek information and peer support using a variety of digital platforms, and negotiate social support—all while attempting to manage conflicts between work, life, and relationship roles. The moments that mark us in the transition from loved one to caregiver matter because if we don’t make sense of how we are being transformed, we risk undervaluing our care experiences, denying our evolving beliefs, becoming trapped by other’s misunderstandings, and feeling underappreciated, burned out, and overwhelmed. Informed by original caregiver research and proven advocacy strategies, this book speaks to caregiving as it unfolds, in all of its confusion, chaos, and messiness. Readers won’t find well-intentioned clichés or care stereotypes in this book. There are no promises to help caregivers return to a life they knew before caregiving. No, this book greets caregivers where they are in their journey—new or chronic—not where others expect (or want) them to be.

"Every caregiver's story is unique, but one thing you all have in common is that you need to be nourished to have the resilience and compassion to tend to the needs of those you love. The Caregiver's Companion approaches caregiving not as a burden, but as an opportunity to grow and receive graces and blessings. Written by the founders of Nourish for Caregivers--an organization that seeks to improve the health and spiritual wellbeing of caregivers--this beautifully designed, full-color journal is a practical resource with encouraging readings, prayers, and guided journaling to help you draw strength from your faith in a few sacred moments each day. It is a unique resource to remind you to care for yourself as you care for others. The physical, financial, and emotional demands of caregiving can take an enormous toll, and their high stress levels make caregivers a population at-risk. The Caregiver's Companion provides the encouragement and spiritual nourishment you need to persevere each day--whether your role involves hands-on caregiving, helping from a distance, or lending emotional support to a loved one in an assisted living facility. Each entry in this beautiful full-color guided journal combines prayers, meditations, reflection questions, quotations, and plenty of space for personal journaling, allowing you to capture the highs and lows of your daily experiences"--

"Nurses play a vital role in improving the safety and quality of patient car -- not only in the hospital or ambulatory treatment facility, but also of community-based care and the care performed by family members. Nurses need know what proven techniques and interventions they can use to enhance patient outcomes. To address this need, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), with additional funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has prepared this comprehensive, 1,400-page, handbook for nurses on patient safety and quality -- Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. (AHRQ Publication No. 08-0043)." - online AHRQ blurb, http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nurseshdbk/

"The Caregiving Years, Six Stages to a Meaningful Journey" helps you answer these questions: Why me? Why now? What now? While other books focus on your family member or friend who needs your help and care, this book focuses just on you and what you need to manage the experience of caregiving.The handbook helps you feel better about your todays while understanding what you'll need for your tomorrows. You'll read what caregiving is really like but you'll also see that you will make it through and be better for it. The last stage–The Godspeed Caregiver–nudges you to live your dream–a dream newly defined by your caregiving experience."The Caregiving Years" is separated into six stages, beginning when you expect to care for a family member and ending about two years after caregiving ends. Because caregiving can be such a complicated experience, the handbook provides simple coping strategies, wrapped in a keyword and a purpose, to help in each stages. Each stage also includes action plans to guide you.The handbook tells the story of a family caregiver in five of the stages, as well as tips to help you navigate the bad days, the difficult decisions and the overwhelming emotions. You'll find articles which offer suggestions to give you courage when you venture out of the house after staying inside for too long, tips to help you manage the holiday season, exercises to help you understand your limits and build your team, and quizzes to make you laugh, reset your perspective and remind you that you have solutions.The handbook will prompt you to be proactive so you'll be as ready as you can for what's next, and will show you how to create memories which will comfort you later.

The guide tells you how to: Understand how AD changes a person Learn how to cope with these changes Help family and friends understand AD Plan for the future Make your home safe for the person with AD Manage everyday activities like eating, bathing, dressing, and grooming Take care of yourself Get help with caregiving Find out about helpful resources, such as websites, support groups, government agencies, and adult day care programs Choose a full-time care facility for the person with AD if needed Learn about common behavior and medical problems of people with AD and some medicines that may help Cope with late-stage AD

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