I'm delighted to share that our Australian Master Trainer, Sue Silcox has authored and published a book - The ABC of Compassionate Communication.  Sue is passionate about helping people become empowered through learning, practice, support, and self-care.

Don't you enjoy being around people who are naturally grateful?  Can we cultivate an attitude of gratefulness ourselves?  Of course, we can!  Practicing gratitude not only is good for our souls but can improve our health and well- being.

March 3 -7 is Careers in Aging Week and an appropriate time to talk about the importance of this topic.  No longer are the shortages of direct care staff and others in long term care a subject of the future.  The crisis is looming and it is serious.

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.

Stress Reaction is a term being used more often to describe communication in persons living with dementia.  Behavioral expression, too, is communication.  In a growing number of circles, the term behavioral expression is being replaced by stress reaction simply because behaviors sometimes leans toward being a negative descriptive of how persons with dementia express unmet needs.

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.