Family Caregiver Investigation

  Many of us have, or are, or will, face the question - should we bring our frail elder home instead of putting them in long term care? One of the realities of this decision is that your private family home will now be put into service as an unaccounted part of the healthcare system. You will be joining millions of family homes that are providing unfunded infrastructure to the healthcare system. What does this reality entail? First and foremost, you will now be responsible for overseeing and/or operating a 24/7 healthcare facility which means you will be actively managing over 700 hours of caregiving time every month (30 day month = 720 hours; 31 day month = 744 hours). Whether you cover this time yourself, with unpaid family and friends, paid professional, or limited service support from your local health authority, you will be responsible for the quality and level of care provided to your frail elder. How will you incorporate this additional role and responsibility to your existi...

  We have been going through a difficult month with Mom's health. Her digestive system was giving us information that it needed more dietary fibre and she needed to be a little more active. It was hard on Mom, as well as the rest of us, as we cleaned up one bowel emergency after another.  It has taken me two years to build up a family caregiving team that is (somewhat) manageable for me and my continuously depleting resources. As Mom grows weaker and her complex health needs require more time and attention there is an escalating overlap of needs increasing in relation to resource depletion. We live with this constant tension of completing the mission of looking after Mom and watching the burn down of our resources, hoping our resources outlast Mom's lifeline. It doesn't have to be this way. When we build strength in our family caregiving community, in particular enacting rational healthcare infrastructure systems to support family caregiving beds in family homes, we will be...