Find More Help and Know Your Are Not Alone...Lots of Support for Life's Ups and Downs and Bumps in the Road

No matter our age or stage of life, there are important things to consider about one's emotional, social, mental, cognitive abilities. If someone is sick from the flu or just not feeling well, if taking pain meds or having physical challenges, there may be short term needs for support...a bit like some with dementia need from time to time or on a more regular basis.]\

 Learn about NAMI too, National Alliance on Mental Illness and all they offer people whose family members have mental illness or for other community supports. I have often wanted there to be more formal coalitions with those in the DV (Domestic Violence), SA (Substance Abuse..or even Substance Use, legal or illegal) and Mental Health and Illness realms to access services and address problem pile-ups (a NAMI term from the founder Joyce Burland who I heard speak in CT about ten years ago for a workshop on being a support group leader... She was amazingly dedicated!)

Same with handling change, stress, conflict and more. As we grow in care and compassion and support skills  the game of life can involve more team players. 

Helping one another learn about support such as from 211.org and ways to create small teams to check in on medical appointments, dental and mental health and concerns, ADLs--Activities of Daily Living skills such as dressing, eating, moving, transferring and socializing in some way (getting out of bed or to the next room or having guests and some basic routines such as phone calls daily to connect with a friend and have a caregiver support system that is covering the bases...and that should be 24/7 if Any Signs of Dementia ideally since over time that could progress...so having door locks and alarms (loud beeps that sound if someone goes out of a door for instance,) fenced in yards (to keep people in and wild animals out) and again no car keys or ways for someone to keep driving who shouldn't (and ideally all drivers could have a trusted buddy to let them know if there are concerns long before a doctor would have to say 'no driving'.) 

These are a few tips and I'm sure there's a lot more such as a financial guardian to help one pay bills (often for no cost to the person and giving a monthly accounting of which bills were paid...) A question there is how to set up a budget for food and such and secure ways for the receipts to be turned in by a caregiver etc or the elder or client in need of that.

Clear support for each part of the process would be helpful to spell out in an app and on printed paper so more people have a way to use that. The need for a Power of Attorney for everyone to have in place for short-term financial needs vs one that is for more extensive matters needs to be clear to everyone as well. 

Knowing that the terms vary in every state as may some laws regarding medicaid for homecare coverage (such as the NY CDPAP care program to help people have homecare from family and friends and be paid for by NY State without needing reimbursement possibly) are important to study 5-10 years in advance. So people today in their 50s and 60s and even 40s may be wise to get familiar and learn of options for family, friends and others who may be in need...and really that can be taught in grade school and high school so they can advocate for their own grandparents and parents and others as they pursue careers. 

The idea of Advance Care Education is now part of medicare (with some coverage for a consult about healthcare directives for instance) and can cover the end of life subjects of having an advance directive, having a MIDEO (My Informed Decision on Video, which I and many others have been learning to assist with to help clarify the options and process of making one's wishes known after a consult with a medical doctor and having medical terms used to be as specific as possible to avoid confusion along the way in an emergency situation.) 

Those will not be covered likely at this conference, but as one can see, the topics can be raised and more learned with networking and taking time to do more online research as well. 

Thanks to all for the work and care they do for themselves and others. Caring for the caregiver is an important field as well since preventing burn out is an important way to maintain health and not suffer from extra stress, loss of sleep and more. See info on the site BrainTime.com and I am affiliate with them too, finding the simple sounds to listen to with headphones an easy part of a sleep routine to balance the brain. See a post from a few weeks ago on this blog of from 11/1/20. I can be emailed at cathpalmercares@gmail.com also. 

That can be used by all people in a household so the cost of 30/month or less (if getting the annual plan after a free trial and another month or so for instance.) Dr. Jim Otis should be recognized for his work and program that he makes directly available to people who do not have a need or way to see a specialist.

Thanks again for all doing programs like this and spreading the word to learn together about the big game of LIFE, with the big IF in the middle being a good reason to ask questions, learn and live and creative caring ways and help others along the way and into the bright future. See more on the blog Livfully.org