What Happens Now?
My friends who are caregivers don’t call themselves caregivers. They simply get done what must get done.
When they realized they were being relied on as ‘it‘, to ensure their parent or sibling or friend would be looked after, they did not go online and search ‘caregiver’ at Twitter, Instagram, FB or Linked In. They called everyone they knew who might have experience or insights and asked all the questions. This is what we do well, yes? We reach out, and those who choose to step up with us become our ‘team’.
Caregivers Alberta says there are almost 1million of us in Alberta. That is a crazy number of people! I’m very glad to see that most countries, most provinces, states and regions have organizations curating and producing helpful resources. This wasn’t the case even a few years ago.
My siblings and I were the typical care-team that scrambled together, informed ourselves, made reactive decisions and now probably should debrief. Dad died just over 3 years ago. Mom died 5 weeks ago. Both lived for numerous years with advancing dementia. The required care evolved and our goodbyes were a multi-year process as they gradually left us. Our Simplify Caring account is named Team Tina. My generous and outgoing father-in-law is now an unhappy, new resident in a full-care facility. Maureen and her siblings have teamed up, organized themselves and now deal with the day to day, day by day.
I’m sharing this personal snapshot to let you know that the Simplify Caring web-app evolved through numerous iterations of real-life need → problem solving → learning, with those around us.
If you can, reach out and walk alongside others who now navigate the caregiving world. We need eachother and want to hear from one another.
