Caring Community - Caregiving

A Caregiver's Challenge

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 15:04:44 -0800

Maryann Schacht, MSW, BCD, is an author, speaker, and workshop leader with more than 30 years experience working with families in crisis. Her book titled A Caregiver’s Challenge: Living, Loving, Letting Go offers a road map and survival guide to everyone who is suddenly thrust into a caregiver role. She combines her personal experience caring for her terminally ill husband with her professional expertise in this invaluable resource. A Caregiver’s Challenge offers support, resources, and useful exercises for caregivers and their patients.

Maryann is frequently interviewed on national radio about caregivers and comfort care issues and may be contacted at 707-537-9419.

Alzheimer's Association

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 19:15:17 -0800

The Alzheimer’s Association, the world leader in Alzheimer research and support, is a voluntary health organization dedicated to finding preventions, treatments and, eventually, a cure for Alzheimer dementia. Their mission is to eliminate Alzheimer's disease through the advancement of research and to enhance quality care and support for individuals, their families and care partners.

They provide reliable information and care consultation; create supportive services for families; increase funding for dementia research; and influence public policy changes.

The Alzheimer's Association nat

American Geriatrics Society (AGS)

Sun, 6 Jun 2010 17:17:20 -0700

Excellent resources for health in aging. Tip sheets and lots of how to for caregivers.

Americans for Better Care of the Dying

Tue, 5 Apr 2011 21:35:46 -0700

Americans for Better Care of the Dying goals are to: build momentum for reform; explore new methods and systems for delivering care; and shape public policy through evidence-based understanding.

Every dying person needs to be able to count on excellent care. Americans for Better Care of the Dying (ABCD) aims to improve end-of-life care by learning which social and political changes will lead to enduring, efficient, and effective programs. ABCD works with the public, clinicians, policymakers, and other end-of-life organizations to make change happen.

ABCD President Joanne Lynn, MD is one of the foremost national leaders in this movement and the author of Handbook for Mortals: Guidance for People Facing Serious Illness; and Improving Care for the End of Life.

Californians' End-of-Life Care Differs by Race and Ethnicity

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 16:38:19 -0700

This important study and related reports released by the California Healthcare Foundation in March 16, 2007 reports that: In California, the most populous and diverse state in the country, significant racial and ethnic differences exist at the end of life. These reports â�� the first in a new series of CHCF-supported projects focusing on end-of-life issues - found significant variations in the expectations, experiences, and decisions of patients and their families in the months preceding death.

“As California’s diverse population grows older, ensuring quality care at the end of life for everyone takes on even greater significance,” Mark D. Smith, M.D., M.B.A., president and CEO of CHCF, said Thursday at the Association of Health Care Journalists conference in Los Angeles. “By supporting research and projects to improve the quality of end-of-life care, CHCF sees an opportunity to help make California a national example of best medical practices and culturally appropriate care.”

Care of the Patient with Severe Chronic Illness – An Online Report on the Medicare Program.

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:27:18 -0800

Care of the Patient with Severe Chronic Illness-An Online Report on the Medicare Program is a key critical report completed in 2006 by the Dartmouth Atlas Project. It reports that: “Almost one-third of Medicare spending for chronically ill is unnecessary… A fundamental problem, and one that contributes to both overspending and worse outcomes, is that most acute care hospitals have become first-line providers of services to chronically ill elderly people, whose care would be better managed, safer and less expensive outside the hospital setting. . . . Staggering variations in how hospitals care for chronically ill elderly patients indicate serious problems with quality of care and point toward unnecessary spending by Medicare. Lower utilization of acute care hospitals and physician visits could actually lead to better results for patients and prolong the solvency of the Medicare program.” The study calls for overhauling how the nation manages chronic illness, and proposes that hospitals take leadership in redesigning how they care for the chronically ill.

Caring Connections - It's About How You LIVE

Sat, 3 Jan 2009 11:23:23 -0800

Caring Connections, a program of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO), is a national consumer engagement initiative to improve care at the end of life, supported by a grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Caring Connections
-Provides free resources, information and motivation for actively learning about end-of-life resources.
-Promotes awareness of and engagement in efforts to increase access to quality end-of-life care.
-Helps people connect with the resources they need, when they need them.
-Brings together community, state and national partners working to improve end-of-life care.

Caring Resources Guide

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 18:22:59 -0800

Caring Resources Guide (by the Compassionate Care Alliance of Monterey County) provides links to what may be among the best articles on the web or websites that discuss the many issues about serious illness, caregiving, end-of-life, and grief recovery. Includes information about diagnosis and prognosis, learning how to cope, disease management, and so much more as "A Gateway to Informatioin, Care Choices and Planning."

Children's Hospice & Palliative Care Coalition

Thu, 2 Feb 2012 11:06:25 -0800

Children's Hospice and Palliative Care Coalition of California is a group of organizations, institutions and individuals from throughout the State of California working together to promote compassionate medical care which includes spiritual, emotional and financial support for children with life-threatening illnesses. ...because when a child has a serious illness, medicine is not enough...

Consumer Help Site - National Association of Social Workers

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 15:11:09 -0800

In thousands of ways, social workers help people help themselves. People of every age. From every background. In every corner of the country - wherever we’re needed - starting here and now. Welcome to your source for professional advice, inspiring stories - even a social worker directory. Social workers. Help starts here. This website is provided by the National Association of Social Workers and includes sections on Seniors and Aging, Issues and Answers, Mind and Spirit. The Senior section includes in-depth look issues of import, real life stories shared, resources of value, current trends, helpful tip, options and other information helpful for finding one’s way through the senior years. The Health and Well Being section includes information related to death and dying, living with illness, pain management, etc. The Mind and Spirit section includes orientation to various mental illnesses, grief & loss and other helpful information.

Exploring Caregiver Issues

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 18:08:12 -0800

LeadingAge formerly was American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging offers numerous resources about for caregivers. Caring for a loved one isn't easy. That's why LeadingAge members are committed to developing resources that can help individuals provide their loved ones with the help they need on their own terms. This page features videos, guides, websites and other resources our members developed for caregivers. Visit frequently to find resources that may help you or a friend fulfill this important role in someone's life.

LeadingAge’s Consumer Hub offers information and support to help people make the most of the aging experience.

Final Crossing: Learning to Die in Order to Live

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 15:33:42 -0800

The Final Crossing: Learning to Die in Order to Live is a new book by Dr. Scott Eberle, Medical Director, Hospice of Petaluma. “This book is itself a rite of passage. Extraordinary insights shared by two remarkable people, one dying, the other the inner life and decisions of the physician and friend attending this fine fellow preparing to head into death. This is the best work of its sort I have come across. There are so many levels, so many books in this book that it might well become a teaching text in many classrooms.” Stephen Levine, author of Who Dies?, Healing into Life and Death, and A Year to Live

Finding Our Way: Living with Dying in America

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 13:51:27 -0800

The Finding Our Way: Living With Dying in America national newspaper series appeared in more than 160 newspapers, reaching millions of Americans (www.findingourway.net). That series consisted of 15 articles created by a distinguished group of authors and editors, and was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson, Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels, and Charitable Leadership Foundations.

This hybrid web-cdrom course offers a new opportunity for Americans to learn from the widely read newspaper series. The 15 Finding Our Way articles, and the inspiring stories they contain, are the heart of this course. In addition, the Finding Our Way authors have contributed discussion questions, additional resources, and insights that are important components of the course. The discussion questions can be used for small group discussion or for individual reflection, and the course can be taken at any time and at any pace that works for you. Upon successful completion of the course and the final examination, an electronic certificate of completion will be issued to you. No continuing education units are available for this learning experience. We hope you enjoy the course and find the information it contains useful to you in your personal life or in your work as a professional or volunteer caregiver.

Foundation for Health in Aging Resources

Fri, 1 Oct 2004 20:36:07 -0700

The AGS Foundation for Health in Aging (FHA) strives to make trustworthy and practical health care information available to the public at no charge. Resources include

Persistent Pain Management
Eldercare at Home
Patient Education Forums

Franciscan Medical Group's Improving Care through the End of Life

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 18:11:40 -0800

Franciscan’s Improving Care through the End of Life program helps people live the end of their lives as fully as possible. By integrating palliative care (pain and symptom management) with education, reliable support, and links to a broad range of community and health care resources, they reach out to make sure the needs and desires of patients and their loved ones are heard, supported, and met.