Decatur Presbyterian Church Caregiver Blog Archives

How Churchgoing Seniors Can Stay Fit and Active

06 May 2018

This article is a guest post written by Jason Lewis of Strongwell.org and published with permission. It’s important for seniors to stay active, but it can be difficult to get moving some days. For many seniors, health issues prevent them from doing as much as they...

On Long-Term Caregiving: Loneliness

06 Sep 2017

This is an article in a series about long-term caregiving. One of the disturbing feelings that can happen in long-term caregiving is loneliness. This loneliness feeling may come on suddenly. Or, it may linger in the back of our minds and come into awareness in a quiet moment, in...

On Long-Term Caregiving: Mental Stress

15 Aug 2017

This is an article in a series about long-term caregiving. Long-term caregiving requires ongoing alert awareness of the many needs of the patient. One caregiver described it as hyper-vigilance, like always thinking what needs to be done, and when, and how, and where, and at what...

On Long-Term Caregiving: Emotional Stress

08 Aug 2017

This is an article in a series about long-term caregiving. Long-term caregiving stresses us physically, and we live with fatigue. It also stresses us mentally, as we must remember many important things and sometimes our memory fails us. And, it stresses us emotionally. We can be...

On Long-Term Caregiving: Physical Stress

24 Jul 2017

This is one article in a series about long-term caregiving. For nineteen months my wife struggled with metastasized cancer. I was her primary, and most often only caregiver, other than the night sitters from 10 PM to 6 AM. I did everything except cooking for which I had no...

On Long-Term Caregiving: Mother, Now the Stranger

11 Jul 2017

This is one article in a series about long-term caregiving. She was in counseling with me many years ago. Recently I received an email from her. A distressing email. Her mother now has Alzheimer’s Disease, and sometimes does not know her during her visits. She asked for...

On Long-Term Caregiving: Relationship Changes

01 Jul 2017

This is one article in a series about long-term caregiving. Each of us is born into a social environment. A family of some kind. From birth, we are immediately in relationships. We are immediately interacting with others. We can not survive alone. We depend on some persons to...

On Long-Term Caregiving: Increasing Demands

05 Jun 2017

This is a series of articles about long-term caregiving. Long-term caregiving of a person in declining health of body and/or mind causes increasing demands on the primary caregiver. These demands are many and they vary in intensity. The increasing demands force the caregiver to...

On Long-Term Caregiving: An Unavoidable Uncertainty

15 May 2017

This is a series of articles about long-term caregiving. A friend called to chat. She is a caregiver. The only caregiver. Her husband is in declining physical health. Unless a miracle happens, he will only get worse. There is no cure. She knows this. But, what she does not know...

On Long-Term Caregiving: An Unavoidable Reality

25 Apr 2017

This is the first of a series of articles about long-term caregiving. I will share what I have learned from personal and professional experience, and from participants in our weekly Caregivers Support Group, which began on August 7, 2014. (Four participants who began on that date...

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