Caregiver Dave Podcast

A Mother’s Struggle to Care for her Family with a Rare Disease, Ann Woodbury

Author and educator Ann S Woodbury has a Bachelor’s Degree in Family and Child Relationships and is an advisor to medical professionals who are still learning about Myotonic Dystrophy. As a mother of 4 children (now adults) diagnosed with Myotonic Dystrophy (DM) I was often dealing with excessive self-doubt and overwhelm. As I’ve learned to understand DM it has increased my awareness of others in society that also have cognitive disorders.

The ”Sudden” Caregiver, Author Karen Waener Schueler

Karen Warner Schueler is the author of The Sudden Caregiver: A Roadmap for Resilient Caregiving, which she wrote after caring for her late husband, Joel Kurtzman. Karen became a sudden caregiver when Joel was diagnosed out of the blue with Stage IV cancer. In her book, she draws upon her own experience, the experience of other caregivers, and her Master’s degree in Positive Psychology to offer the informal, unpaid, caregiver, guidance, resilience, and a roadmap – a rational approach to planning what is, essentially, unplannable. Karen’s caregiver web site, TheSuddenCaregiver.com, is an online platform to help connect caregivers with resources, information, and with each other. Karen also runs a caregiver support group for the digital community, Secure Seniors, an-invitation-only platform designed exclusively for seniors to improve their health and well-being through meaningful social connection.

Brooks Kenny Alzheimer‘s - Explaining ”Brainguide”

New First-of-its-kind Platform to Address Consumer Needs for Information about Brain Health, Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Washington, D.C. – On Wednesday, March 31, UsAgainstAlzheimer’s will officially launch BrainGuide, a first-of-its-kind platform to address consumer needs for information about brain health, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer’s Disease, with a press briefing call at 11:00 am EDT. This official launch follows the exclusive platform preview broadcast on ABC News’ Good Morning America on Friday, March 26. With BrainGuide, millions of Americans who worry about memory or brain health will now have a powerful platform to help them find their way to helpful resources and a path forward. This new resource includes a confidential memory questionnaire — taken over the phone or online in English or Spanish – followed by tailored education and resources based on the answers provided. The memory questionnaire can be self-administered or taken by a caregiver.

Margaret Combs, The 5 Key Factors to Help PTSD Victims to Learn

After over twenty years in business including owning her own marketing communications company for 14 years with clients in the U.S., Europe and South America, Margaret Combs moved on to work for a large corporation in the cable industry. She was then asked to run a development organization (CTAM) for the cable tv and telecommunications industries. After a number of years in Washington with CTAM, she served as President of a cable television network and later, after a move to Florida for her husband’s health, she ran an intellectual property and manufacturing company. In 2017 she retired to focus on learning everything she could about PTSD after the suicide death of a dear friend, a military physician. After his funeral she began to write, using all she had learned in her studies of that incurable illness, PTSD that afflicted so many of our post 9/11 war military. Her latest book, The Journey from Hope to Healing weaves the five key factors for learning to live comfortably and cope with PTSD. A mother and grandmother, Mrs. Combs lives and works in Florida and serves on the Board of Directors of Gratitude America, one of the nation’s most successful treatment programs for veterans with PTSD.

When the Unexpected with Sorrow & Separation - Dr George Viney

Dr. George Viney is a psychotherapist, poet, magician, storyteller, speaker, and author of the forthcoming books: The Fathering Thread & The Protecting Veil, and The Wedding of Eros and Psyche. He has been providing psychotherapy for over 25 years and has served under-privileged youth/families for 20 years as a therapist and clinical supervisor in public mental health. He has a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology and B.S. Degree from Northwestern University in Theater. His creative calling is to care for the psyche and attend to its logos, or speech, through a poetic and mythological consciousness, dreams, and meaningful synchronicities that appear in our lives. Dr. George Viney has been a noted speaker on psychological imagination and theory. As a magician/storyteller, he provides programs and workshops on the meaning of fairy tales and myths. He has been on daytimes soaps and is a member of the Academy of Magical Arts in Hollywood.

Grow Food, Save Money & Improve Your Health - Marjory Wildcraft

Marjory Wildcraft, Founder of The Grow Network - Author of “The Grow System: An Essential Guide for Modern Self-sufficiency From Growing Food to Making Medicine” published by Penguin Random House, featured by National Geographic as an expert is off-grid living, hosted Mother Earth News Online Homesteading Summit, selected by Authority Magazine as a Women Leader in Wellness, focus of award winning Reuters Sustainability Media contest, nationwide PBS campaign teaching people to grow half of their own food in their backyards, and on the cover of Masters of Health Magazine for Earth Day

Caregiving With Laughter, Joy and Practicality, Ellen Rittberg

In this humorous self-help book, award-winning journalist and attorney Ellen Pober Rittberg serves as a guide and cheerleader to family members who undertake to care for their elderly parents. Sharing the stresses and satisfactions when caring for her aging mother, Rittberg uses comical chapter headings such as:

• Be The Alpha Dog
• Boundaries? Huh? Your Aging Parent Has None
• Your Parent May Develop Sticky Fingers
• JEOPARDY! (why elderly parents need their favorite show even when they can't answer any of the questions) 

Rittberg shares with readers the life-changing, humbling and deeply rewarding benefits of caring for elderly parents and knows a good belly laugh is the best stress reliever.

How Do You Find HOPE in Difficult Times? Susan Zimmerman

The 4 Habits of HOPE, Susan Zimmerman is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, and Certified Clinical Trauma Professional. She’s the author of six books. Her recently released book is Rays of Hope: Lighting the Way in Life’s Transitions and Losses. Today she’ll share with us the four habits of HOPE and how to recognize phases of grief when you’re in a difficult life transition, and caregiving can certainly be difficult.

Caregiver Shortages Cause Huge Caregiver Employment Incentive Opportunities

Seniors Helping Seniors® franchise system was founded by husband-and-wife duo Kiran and Philip Yocom. Kiran, who grew up in India, later worked to advance humanitarian efforts alongside Mother Teresa. After moving to the U.S. in 1995 and marrying her husband Philip, the Yocoms felt called to provide loving care to seniors and to cultivate an exchange of gifts at every generational level. Together, the Yocoms founded Seniors Helping Seniors® in-home services in 1998, opening the brand up to franchising in 2006. With a mission to be the most respected and rewarding homecare provider in the U.S., Seniors Helping Seniors® locations stands apart from competitors as the only company that prioritizes hiring active seniors to provide care services to their less-active counterparts.

Don’t Be Afraid to Reach for your Dreams. Linley Baker

Don’t Be Afraid to Reach for your Dreams. YOU don’t have to wait until AFTER you have finished caregiving. You can plan and take small steps NOW. These will reap big benefits for you now AND IN THE FUTURE.