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Managing The Stress ~ Making The Decisions ~ Discovering The Meaning |
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Caregiving |
Solutions To Your Caregiving Situations Throughout Your Caregiving Years |
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Giving meaning to the day By Denise M. Brown Your entire family can enjoy activities with your care recipient. Some suggestions: --Develop a monthly card club, consisting of just members of your family. Designate one Sunday a month (you might want to take the summer off) for cards; encourage your care recipient to teach the younger children how to play gin rummy, bridge or pinochle. --Involve your care recipient in the care of the family pets. "Care" can interupted in many ways: Ask your care recipient to hug the cat every day, or keep the fish company with some friendly conversation, or let the dog out during the day when you are at work and the kids at school. Or, ask your care recipient if the family pet could spend the weekend with them. (My great uncle would often ask his neighbor if her cat could "come for a visit". When she went away for the weekend, he volunteered to "babysit".) Also, purchase a bird feeder that attaches to your care recipient's window. --Board games can be a great way to stimulate conversation. Games such as "Life" and "Monopoly" can be fun. To provoke a deeper conversation, consider "Life Stories", a board game that encourages sharing and reminiscing. (For more information about the game, contact Family Narratives Distributors Inc., Box 27086, Golden Valley, MN, 55427.) --Ask your care recipient and children to compile of photo album of their favorite memories. --Grow and cultivate a herb garden, which can be cared for year-round. Be sure to flavor your foods with the home-grown herbs. |
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