A Special Place for Caregivers

We All Need Support and Inspiration 

 If you are a caregiver like me, life can become a very lonely place. Especially if you are taking care of an elderly person who has dementia. In my case it's my mom whom I take care of. Along with dementia she is more or less blind. And let me tell you, going places with her can be quite the challenge. And one that becomes more work than fun. Staying home in the comfort of safety becomes the norm.

I must say thank goodness for the internet, for I can pretty much go anywhere in the world

I want! I have actually told friends I have probably been more places in a day than they have without leaving my house!

A challenge I have found is that with baby boomers caring for their parents on the rise a google search gives you an overwhelming amount of websites for caregiving. Sure that is a good thing but the internet has become a myriad of caregiving sites. And each and every one of them brag about the advice and information that will solve all your problems. Honestly navigating through them all I have felt many times more confused than when I began.

I have been on them all. From Alzheimer’s Association, AARP to Daily Caring they are all comprehensive and give you, the caregiver lots of good general information. But you see the problem was I never felt connected and if I had a question I had to keep digging and digging and it became exhausting. And then of course there  are the government websites like Medicare and other state health insurance assistance programs, but they just take you in a never ever ending circle. So you are left alone trying to swim in this huge growing ocean of how to survive taking care of someone that so desperately needs you. The sad part is you are probably like me and shooting from the hip and then wondering,  now what.

And then one day I found Caregiving.com. Its motto is "Caring for you as you care for family".  This is a website that if you dont take 2 minutes and sign up you are doing yourself an injustice. I am guilty of the above. Honestly when I first landed on the website it felt different. It asked me to register and I immediately clicked off. I really can't tell you why I did that because it does not cost anything to sign up, I just guess I wanted instant gratification and didn't want my email bogged down by another site that I might have no interest in. But somehow a little while later, maybe even a day or two as luck would have it,  I ended up back on that pretty site. Now mind you, these days I am really feeling challenged as my caregiver responsibilities are getting harder and harder, so you must understand I was in serious need of some help and support. Desperate might be a better word to describe how I was feeling. Little did I know finally I was where I needed to be.

So Caregiving.com was debuted in 1996 and the first online support group was launched in the fall. The founder of this site is Denise M. Brown. To put it bluntly she is a leading expert in the field of caregiving. The way I see her, she is the pro of helping others on the journey of managing life as a caregiver. Her knowledge and insights have been featured in The New York Times, US News & World Report as well as the many books, she has written for and about Caregiving. The information she shares in her books like  The Caregiving Years, Six Stages to a Meaningful Journey and Take Comfort, Reflections of Hope for Caregivers all provide insights, inspirations and such important and needed information to those who care for family members.

I'm A Family Caregiver- What's Your Superpower?

 I can go on and on about all the reasons you should become a part of this community if you are a caregiver, for honestly I have yet to find a site for caregivers that even comes close to this gem. The website is more than just a website, it is a community. And one that features so many resources, like blogs of other family caregivers, daily, weekly and monthly real time chats with others, clubs of comforts and inspiration, there are free webinars, free weekly self-care plans and so much more. Imagine finding a place you can go with an active caring community all of whom are going through or have been through many of the challenges you are confronting. They welcome you in and then they take it a step further and make you feel like you have an anchor to grab onto. Let me tell you  in this big deep ocean of caregiving it has been my saving grace. Every step of the way you feel like you have found a place that will help you ease the stress of daily care-giving and remind you that you are not alone.

And you can bet you will find Denise herself at many of these chats. Why not come over and join us?