Caregiving Comfort: A Family Caregiver’s Portable Support Group

A caregiver needs all the support that can be had, but all-too-often a caregiver cannot find time and energy to attend scheduled support groups. Imagine the usefulness of a portable support group you can carry with you anywhere and access whenever you want. That’s what we can have in Carol Bursack’s touching little book, “Minding Our Elders: Caregivers Share Their Personal Stories”.

For over twenty years, Carol Bradley Bursack cared for a neighbor and six elderly family members, Through the years of caregiving and of eventual deaths she has come to know professionals in the field, as well as many other family caregivers. During this 20 year stint when Carol and her hubby were taking care of their parents, she became an astute student of the caregiving poccess, as many do. While Carol learned a ton about caregiving by actually being a caregiver herself, she questioned her feelings of guilt, frustration, burden and stress, aside her feelings of pride and a sense of accomplishment for a job well done.

It was the caregivers themselves who inspired and encouraged her to write “Minding Our Elders”, a journey which helped her develop the understanding and integrity to enter the final stage of her own life-cycle. In “Minding Our Elders” she turns to the heros in our midst, folks who have been there - done that, sharing in a delightfully well- crafted, easy going style not only her own touching experiences, but those of her caregiving peers. We get an all-too-needed vie into what it’s like to grow older and need care, but also how the caregiving process is actually played out.

Ideally, between the laughter and tears, you yourself will gain a few insights of your own as you digest this heartwarming book.

According to a 2004 study by in a delightfully well- crafted, easy going style AARP and the National Alliance of Caregiving, over forty four million people age 18 and over provide care to another adult. Most ar happy to help, but caregiving can become an overwhelming addition to an already busy lie. These folks need support.

The purpose of “Minding Our Elders” is to offer a portable support group. Each story is self-contained. The stories are honest looks at many different care situations all with a common thread - that caregiving is both hard and personally rewarding work, at least in hindsight. These tales can give deep comfort, and they assure folks that they are, above all, not alone.

In the words of Erle Maisei, Ph.D. ,”America’s Baby Boomers will become increasingly familiar with the challenge of elder care, then of their own care. Carol Bursack’s compassionate stories help chart this difficult territory with grace and elegance.”

These touching stories highlight the need for long term care insurance which can ease the relentless burden on caregivers. Bursack’s book is now required reading for families and financial.csocial and health care professionals everywhere.

Bursak pens an elder care column, titled Minding Our Elders. for the local paper in Fargo, ND, and we can only hope more of her stories make it to the web.

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