Blog Profiles: Caregiving Blogs

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Caregiving Blogs We Love

I have a huge respect for the caregiving industry.

Several of my friends have chosen this career direction, and I’ve found their work transcends just being a “job.” It’s who they are.

Inspired, I decided to look at some great caregiving blogs that aim to help those who help others.

The Caregiver’s Voice

The Caregiver’s Voice brings “caregivers hope and strength with knowledge, support, and humor.” It’s managed by Brenda Avadian.

I really liked several posts on The Caregiver’s Voice. They include Avadian’s piece, Preventing Dementia – We Become What We Eat, and a couple of guest posts, Caregiver for Wandering Stroke Survivor Aided by a Four-Legged Security System and How to Travel with Elders Living with Dementia.

The latter offers some great tips, including the best way to travel is the most direct – by car or plane.

“The best places one with dementia may enjoy are those that are familiar – whether old neighborhoods and family homes or places visited from years ago and still fondly recalled,” writes blogger Derek Hobson-Nahigyan. “Familiar places also have the advantage that if your loved one should become lost, you have a better chance to locate him/her.”

Follow @CaregiversVoice on Twitter.

eCare Diary

eCare Diary simplifies life for the caregiver. The blog is part of a much bigger site that includes a care diary, message board, important documents, articles, Q&As, radio shows, videos, webinars, and tools.

Some of the more interesting pieces I read on eCare Diary include How Fall-Proof Are Your Stairs? and Is a Compensation Claim Restricted to Just Physical Injuries?

In the second post, most people might consider compensation claims as being only made for physical injuries.

“The most common types of physical injuries occur as a result of road traffic accidents and general slips, trips and falls,” the blog says. “The truth is that although the majority of claims are for physical injuries sustained during an accident, many people make accident compensation claims for the mental consequences of an accident. These may not be visible like a physical injury, but can be just as traumatic and are often a side effect of the physical injury.”

Follow @eCare_Diary on Twitter.

EldercareABC Blog

EldercareABC Blog began as an idea based on “empathy and community.”

It was started by Alberta, Canada-based husband and wife team, Steve and Sandra Joyce.

“My wife Sandy and I had cared for both of our parents and now they were all gone,” Steve Joyce writes on the blog. “What was not gone was the memory of how challenging the experience had been. We had raised two children and thought we knew what care giving was about.”

Then Joyce posts a question: “If it requires a village to raise a child, then what does it take to care for an aging parent?”

I liked several posts on EldercareABC. They include Assisted Living Providers Add Solutions for Hospital Referrals and Gift Idea for Aging Parents: The Old Neighborhood Reunion.

In the latter, blogger Joy Loverde shared her experience growing up in the 50s and 60s in her mother’s neighborhood, a Chicago suburb called Melrose Park.

It seemed ideal: The typical day included adults and children milling out of each other’s homes. No doors were ever locked. Children went to the same school; parents partied together.

So Loverde arranged a lunch reunion for her mother with some of the surviving Melrose Park residents. They met at a local restaurant.

“Many of us brought photographs of times gone by,” she wrote. “We toasted those who are no longer with us. It was a bittersweet experience.”

Follow @steveeldercare on Twitter.

The Caregivers’ Living Room

The Caregivers’ Living Room is the blog of Donna Thomson, who writes extensively about eldercare and family caregiving.

This is a powerful site. I totally identified with a post about grief and loss – a book review, actually – Memoir of Mourning: Journey Through Grief and Loss to Renewal.

“The intense personal drama of tending to a dying loved one is not a subject for dinner table chat,” Thomson said. “It is life-changing and yet frequently, we do not have the experience or knowledge to decipher the many meanings in it.”

I also very much appreciated the post, Saying ‘I’m Fine’ When I’m Not.

Follow @Thomsod on Twitter.

P.S. Ever wonder how we come up with ideas for the blog profile topics? Our handy list of industries and subjects on PR Newswire for Journalists stays top of mind. If you’re a blogger or journalist looking for caregiving and health care news, let us know. We’re happy to customize that news feed for you on PR Newswire for Journalists.

Christine Cube is a media relations manager with PR Newswire and freelance writer. Follow her @cpcube.