Access to quality rural healthcare, resources, education, and support is a growing challenge in the US and around the globe.  What does this mean for the growing numbers of persons living with dementia and their families who are caring for them?  How does this affect the quality of care being offered by nursing homes and other care providers?

Caregivers are a unique group of people.  Naturally nurturing and compassionate, such empathetic traits can also lead to complex challenges.  Creating healthy boundaries is especially tough when you are the type of person that wants to help.  Learning when to say yes and how to say no is essential for caregivers to stay physically, emotionally and spiritually healthy.

From the conversations I have every single day with our partners, I'm guessing most of you would give yourselves an adequate score at best.  And perhaps this is on a good day.  "Empowering Your Caregivers" - some of you might just be asking what exactly I mean by empowering caregivers.

Far too often I talk to family caregivers who are concerned about their loved one's cognitive decline.  It is not uncommon to hear such explanations go something like this:

We have a family caregiving tsunami whose tidal waves are affecting every corner of our society.  I venture to say that most communities are not prepared for the domino effects of a fast-aging population let along to provide support to their families that are scrambling to stay above water - emotionally, physically and financially.

Stress is simply a part of life.  Think about each and every stressor that affects our lives almost daily.  Here are just a few to think about:  traffic, annoying telemarketing calls (what telemarketing calls aren't annoying?), junk mail, the news, job demands, airline delays (let's just airports in general), and the list goes on.  Life is complicated, stressful and caregiving is even more so on just about every level.  So instead of talking about eliminating stressors, let's talk about how caregivers can put coping skills into practice so that falling into the traps of anxiety, depression and more is eliminated or decreased as much as possible.