Did you know that more than 3.5 million workers in Canada are also family caregivers? And over half of those are women who provide more than 20 hours per week in unpaid care at home. That's like having a whole second job!  This year, I had the pleasure of co-developing a McMaster Continuing Education free online course for employers titled Creating Caregiver-Friendly Workplaces. The course is primarily for human resources managers who seek to attract and retain valued employees who may otherwise have to leave employment due to their care responsibilities. But working caregivers are welcom ..read more

  I am delighted to host this guest post by Ottawa caregiver and author, Lise Cloutier-Steele. Lise is the author of There’s No Place Like Home: A guide to help caregivers manage the long-term care experience and her website can be found at www.ottawacaregiver.com. I am 71 years old, and like many seniors in my age group, I sometimes wonder what my exit from life will look like. Despite my daily efforts to eat well, exercise and maintain an active lifestyle, anything could happen. After all, illness does not discriminate.  Recently, I watched a beautiful movie starring Jame ..read more

Trying to balance work while caregiving for a family member or friend can feel frantic and impossible. It's exhausting to prop up a fiction that we "should" be able to manage everything, all at once, by ourselves. But now, there is hope that workplaces everywhere will embed caregiver support that will draw and retain talented employees who also have care responsibilities. Both the evidence and the employer training are here!  Over the past year or so, I have been working with a team at McMaster University to develop a new, free online course for employers who seek to attract and retain ..read more

February 14th is of course Valentine's Day and this year, I am planning a very special Caregiving Essentials webinar with... my husband! Jim and I have been married for 47 years and for most of those, we have been caregivers. As a couple, we've cared for our mothers, my step-father and of course our son Nicholas. I've been reflecting lately on what it takes to give care and maintain a loving, spousal relationship. There is no denying, it's a challenge. There's something about caregiving that takes the "red" out of "hot" in the marital bed. Maybe it's the fact that we are constantly watchi ..read more

My New Year's resolution is to work hard at the Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence to get a national strategy for caregivers - ALL caregivers, patients and families.  The third day of the November Canadian Caregiving Summit was all about how we can achieve real change here and worldwide for you, me and the millions of caregivers who need help now. We wanted to know what had been achieved in other countries and how they did it.  First off, we heard from Allison Barkoff, acting Assistant Secretary for Aging and Principal Deputy Administrator, Administration for Community L ..read more

I haven't forgotten to write up Day 3 of the Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence Conference - I WILL get to it (all my notes are made and I can't wait to tell you what happened!). But, it's coming up to Christmas and I want to share something that is holiday-related.  A few days ago, I was browsing a facebook group for parents of children with disabilities. One mother asked for ideas on how to have fun at Christmas when extended family was unable to join and everyone felt blue that "nothing special" was going to happen over the holidays. Being homebound with loved ones who are mobil ..read more

November 7th was Day 2 of the Canadian Caregiving Summit and it was just as exciting as Day 1!  The theme of Day 2 was "Defining the need for a national caregiving strategy." The Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence told us that Canada (like many other countries) has reached a tipping point: many caregivers feel like they cannot go on, care providers are leaving the sector and people accessing care are struggling. The second day of the Summit focused on defining the need for a national caregiving strategy and its potential to transform the care economy for a brighter future of care ..read more

I had the pleasure and privilege of attending the Canadian Caregiving Summit from November 6-8 in Ottawa, Canada. I cannot begin to tell you how thrilling it was to join with so many national and international caregivers, researchers, front line workers and policymakers. Together, we kickstarted a movement for public policy change in Canada to support caregivers, both paid and unpaid. I know that I speak for everyone at the Summit when I say that we know change is coming!  So, in a nutshell, here's what happened at the conference on Day 1:  Host and caregiver Ron Beleno in ..read more

Last week I had the privilege of attending the Canadian Centre of Excellence (CCCE) Summit. It was three days of continuously invigorating, challenging and hopeful discussions. I will write more in the coming days about the Summit and what I learned, but today I want to reflect on the meaning of care in times when part of the world is at war. Today is Remembrance Day and the news is full of unimaginable violence and brutality in the Middle East. The CCCE is powered by the Azrieli Foundation and Naomi Azrieli in her opening remarks at the Summit reflected on how we must persevere in caring even ..read more

 A few months ago, I was chatting with the caregiving thought leader and founder of the Caregiving Years Training Academy, Denise Brown. Denise and I always have great conversations and this time, she mentioned an idea that really caught my attention. "You know why caregivers are so desperate?" she asked, "it's because they don't have their basic needs met."  I've been thinking about this a lot. When I read about the real life trials and tribulations of overworked and overwrought caregivers, I ask myself, "which of their basic needs are not being met? Do they have enough rest? Do t ..read more