Building strength in community - 2023 11 13

 


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 able to take care of our frail elders without the additional stress of wondering if our line of credit will make another mortgage payment before we run out of time.

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