Bringing together the human story of care with its representation in film, fiction and memoir, this book combines an analysis of care narratives to inform and inspire ideas about this major role in life. Alongside analysis of narratives drawn from literature and film, the author sensitively interweaves the story of his wife's illness and care to illuminate perspectives on dealing with human decline. Examining texts from a diverse range of authors such as Leo Tolstoy, Edith Wharton and Alice Munro, and filmmakers such as Ingmar Bergman and Michael Haneke, it addresses questions such as why caregiving is a dangerous activity, the ethical problems of writing about caregiving, the challenges of reading about caregiving, and why caregiving is so important. It serves as a fire starter on the subject of how we can gain insight into the challenges and opportunities of caregiving through the creative arts.

Bringing together the human story of care with its representation in film, fiction and memoir, this book combines an analysis of care narratives to inform and inspire ideas about this major role in life. Alongside analysis of narratives drawn from literature and film, the author sensitively interweaves the story of his wife's illness and care to illuminate perspectives on dealing with human decline. Examining texts from a diverse range of authors such as Leo Tolstoy, Edith Wharton and Alice Munro, and filmmakers such as Ingmar Bergman and Michael Haneke, it addresses questions such as why caregiving is a dangerous activity, the ethical problems of writing about caregiving, the challenges of reading about caregiving, and why caregiving is so important. It serves as a fire starter on the subject of how we can gain insight into the challenges and opportunities of caregiving through the creative arts.

After losing virtually everything meaningful in his life, Benjamin trains to be a caregiver, but his first client, a fiercely independent teen with muscular dystrophy, gives him more than he bargained for and soon the two embark on a road trip to visit the boy's ailing father.

The chances are good that every one of us will become a caregiver at some point in our lives. We come to this challenge in the most personal way possible—we want to help someone we love, but we don't know how, and we're afraid of losing ourselves in this daunting task. If you have picked up this book, you are probably a caring person. You may prove that every day by helping someone who is elderly or developmentally disabled or who suffers from a physical or mental illness. It helps to know that Rosalynn Carter, former First Lady and a director of the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Human Development, which is committed to studying caregiving issues, knows firsthand the challenges of this labor of love. From her own personal experience as a caregiver for her father and grandfather and from that of hundreds of caregivers she has encountered before, during, and since her years in the White House, Mrs. Carter knows that caregiving can be rewarding, but also lonely, stressful, confusing, and frustrating. In Helping Yourself Help Others, Mrs. Carter writes, “Caregivers give so much of themselves and sometimes receive very little in return. The purpose of this book is to encourage you, to empathize with you, and to advocate for your special needs. I hope it will help you have an easier and more enjoyable life.” Mrs. Carter addresses the issues most caregivers face. How do you avoid burnout—the sense of feeling completely overwhelmed and unrewarded? How do you balance your responsibilities as a caregiver with the rest of your life? How can you enlist the aid of other family members? How can you educate yourself about your loved one's condition and work more effectively with the health care team? When is an institution the right choice for your loved one? How can you access helpful associations, literature and government aid? (A helpful appendix lists hundreds of resources.) Helping Yourself Help Others is a rare combination of a warmly personal account of caregiving and a reassuring, clear-eyed guidebook that offers practical solutions to caregiver's typical problems. Filled with empathy, this sensitive, encouraging guide will help you meet a difficult challenge head-on and find fulfillment and empowerment in your caregiving role.

Caregiving: Our Labor of Love is the definitive caregiving experience. This experience took almost seven years to live through. This is a detailed account of that experience. In the next ten years, over 70 million souls will enter the caregiving experience for not only them but their families as well. This level of expectation is just within the United States alone. The United States government is pushing for in-home healthcare in these approaching years. For the numbers and figures that Ive listed, you can go to this website for verification. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK43619/ Let me just say that you amaze me what a good writer you are! I really believe that God has anointed you to write this for such a time as this and is going to use it mightily to help others. Mary Ann Gillespie of OurPrayer.org. Look for our company in late 2015 or early 2016 to be online. Google us by our logo. Our Company: We are a small but growing company with big plans for the future. We plan to not only help but empower the families that are going through their caregiving experiences. We have the knowledge, capability, and desire to encourage you to have the best possible caregiving experience you can have. No longer will you have to feel like you are struggling through your caregiving experience alone. We went through our experiences, and we know what is ahead of you in your experience. We know what worked for us and what didnt. Allow us to share our successes with you so that you and your family can benefit from our knowledge. We hope to bless and touch the lives of millions of families.

Mark and Giulia's life together began as a storybook romance. They fell in love at eighteen, married at twenty-four, and were living their dream life in San Francisco. When Giulia was twenty-seven, she suffered a terrifying and unexpected psychotic break that landed her in the psych ward for nearly a month. One day she was vibrant and well-adjusted; the next she was delusional and suicidal, convinced that she was the devil and that her loved ones were not safe. All she wanted was to die. Eventually, Giulia fully recovered, and the couple had a son. But, soon after Jonas was born, Giulia had another breakdown, and then a third a few years after that. pushed to the edge of the abyss, everything the couple had once taken for granted was upended. A story of the fragility of the mind, and the tenacity of the human spirit, My Lovely Wife is, above all, a love story that raises profound questions: How do we care for the people we love? What and who do we live for? Breathtaking in its candor, radiant with compassion, and written with dazzling lyricism, Lukach's is an intensely personal odyssey through the harrowing years of his wife's mental illness, anchored by an abiding devotion to family that will affirm readers' faith in the power of love.

A rich, penetrating memoir about the author's relationship with a flawed but influential figure—the painter Lucian Freud—and the satisfactions and struggles of a life lived through art. One of Britain's most important contemporary painters, Celia Paul has written a reflective, intimate memoir of her life as an artist. Self-Portrait tells the artist's story in her own words, drawn from early journal entries as well as memory, of her childhood in India and her days as a art student at London's Slade School of Fine Art; of her intense decades-long relationship with the older esteemed painter Lucian Freud and the birth of their son; of the challenges of motherhood, the unresolvable conflict between caring for a child and remaining commited to art; of the "invisible skeins between people," the profound familial connections Paul communicates through her paintings of her mother and sisters; and finally, of the mystical presence in her own solitary vision of the world around her. Self-Portrait is a powerful, liberating evocation of a life and of a life-long dedication to art.

Elder Rage, or Take My Father... Please: How to Survive Caring for Aging Parents--is a riveting true story as well as an extensive self-help book, with solutions for effective management, medically and behaviorally, of challenging elders who resist care. Jacqueline Marcell's poignant and often-humorous story of caring for her challenging elderly father and sweet but frail mother, addresses issues like how to get an obstinate elder to: give up driving, accept a caregiver, see a different doctor, take medication, go to adult day care, move to a new residence, etc. Includes: Behavior Modification Guidelines, 25 Q&A's=How Do I Handle My Elderly Loved One Who...?, Long-Term Care Insurance, Ten Warning Signs of Alzheimer's, How is Alzheimer's Diagnosed, Three Stages of Alzheimer's, Startling Statistics, Other Diseases That Act Like Alzheimer's, Jacqueline's Top Ten Recommendations, Hope For The Future, The Search for the Cure, Valuable Resources, Recommended Reading. Internationally known dementia specialist, Rodman Shankle, MS MD, contributes the Addendum: A Physician's Guide to Treating Dementia. Over 50 endorsements include: Hugh Downs, Regis Philbin, Dr. Dean Edell, Duke University Center for Aging, Dr. Nancy Snyderman/ABC News, Leeza Gibbons, Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, Rudy Tanzi/Harvard Medical School, and The Johns Hopkins Memory Clinic. http://www.elderrage.com