Family Caregiver Investigation

  I'm using a combination of the framework and items we developed from the Scoping Review, and a small business Chart of Accounts that would be used to manage operations for a home-based long term care bed.

  Yesterday I started the task of collecting and cataloguing the photos, videos and notes that document the lived experience of looking after Mom. In yesterday's work session I got about halfway through a collection of over 900 media files.  My takeaways from going through the files so far - and I just happened to start with files from early 2021, when we were finishing the bathroom reno.  First, I noticed how many times Nahanni came up to visit to spend time with Mom. Those were not easy trips for her to make, approximately 6 hours each way including crossing the US / Canada border. I had quite a few photos and videos she shared with me from her visits. Second, I noticed how many times Mom had family visiting. The fact was that we had to make up some of Mom's caregiving support from unpaid family because I could not do it alone. So Mom had visits with her children, and spent time with them, more than any time in the 40 years she was in mental health group housing. Her fr...

   2025 03 20 - Family Caregiving - Data Processing Today I started working on compiling data from our time looking after Mom, a fragile elder with complex needs. She lived in mental health group housing for 40 years because her mental illness disability made it so that she could not care for herself. Mom's mental disability had stablized with medication. She was aging out of the group housing system. We were told she would be moved into a long term care facility. We considered that option, but we were concerned that COVID restrictions would limit our access to visit Mom. We decided to bring her home rather than get her re-housed in a long term care facility. All Mom wanted to do was to move back home with her kids. I'm going through emails from one account, starting from the earliest reference to bringing Mom home. An email dated 2019 08 02 shows a thread of discussion precipitated by management change at Mom's group home. There were many staff being laid off and we were c...