Martha L Garmon

This week I’m giving my blog to a friend, Sharon Hall. Sharon was a care partner to her 96-year-old mother who had vascular dementia and died at home under Hospice care with her and her husband, Rod, who has frontotemporal degeneration (FTD). Sharon is an active advocate for FTD, she is an AFTD support group facilitator and educator. Sharon has recently begun to be involved as an e-Patient Ambassador for Coalition of Compassionate Care of California to educate on palliative care. She represents the dementia community in these efforts. Sharon was also the recipient of the 2017 Advocate of the Year Award at NCC17. Caregiving takes a village When a family is given a diagnosis of a serious illness, it is a very difficult time. Whether it be dementia, heart disease, COPD, or cancer, it will change the way you live the rest of your life. Palliative care is the team that discusses your quality of life. They ask what is important to you. They coordinate between your physicians, support the fam...

This week I’m talking about how to help caregivers with stress reduction. There are two big ways you can help in this respect. Respite and Pampering – or BOTH! When I did a presentation on the Care and Feeding of Caregivers, a friend pointed out on one of my PowerPoint slides that I had listed Pampering twice. I saw that she was right and responded, “Well, it’s a good one!” Caregivers are frequently under more stress than you can imagine. Even when we look calm and in control, just under the surface we are a mess. I am blessed to have a lot of paid help caring for Stephan. However, the emotional stress I carry still consumes me on a daily basis. I cannot imagine how I would survive without the help I have. If you can give a caregiver a break, even for just an hour, you will do much to reduce their stress.  First let’s talk respite…. The definition of respite is “an interval of rest or relief.” All caregivers NEED respite. We are “on” 24/7 and we need time to recharge our batteries ...