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  • About Us
    • About Us
    • Mission & Goals
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  • For Caregivers
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Blog

Guest Blog: Guide to Better Posture and Why it Matters!

Caregiving isn’t easy – in fact, it can be grueling. But sometimes, making seemingly minor lifestyle changes can uplift your…

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Making One’s Way to the End

When President Jimmy Carter shared the news that he had chosen hospice care, he also reminded Americans that death is…

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Embrace a New Year and a New Normal

Caregiving can be an ever-shifting challenge as a loved one’s health issues demand new treatments, new supports, and new routines.…

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Is It Possible to Balance Work & Caregiving?

Caregiving can be a full-time job, but some caregivers have full-time jobs already. So how do they balance both? The…

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When is it Time to Become a Caregiver?

My new life as a caregiver happened suddenly. My husband had a stroke, was paralyzed from the neck down, and…

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How to Take Care of You

Caregivers often forget to prioritize their own care. An ill loved one’s needs may seem more urgent, but even in…

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The Special Challenges of Caregiving with Siblings

When Anne’s father was dying, she couldn’t visit him. Pandemic restrictions at the nursing home meant that only her sister,…

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How to Share Your Love & Care While Far Away

When the health of a beloved friend or family member falters, the responsibility for their care may fall on people…

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Let’s Create “Surprise a Caregiver Day”

Sometimes caregivers feel invisible. They may toil alone, often with a loved one who, due to physical or cognitive issues,…

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Anger Explosions and How to Handle Them

We all get angry. We can’t help it. It’s part of being human. Yet, as a caregiver, that emotion can…

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When Grief Comes Too Soon

Grief and death generally go hand in hand. Yet grief can also come early, when death has yet to occur.…

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How to Help Your Strong Friends

Most of us have likely heard the truism: If you need something done, ask a busy person. But a corollary…

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Thank You for Making a Difference!

A new year can be a time for both gratitude and remembrance, but also anticipation for what the coming months…

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Traditions and How to Enjoy Them

If you’ve ever seen the movie Fiddler on the Roof, then you’ve heard the word “tradition” sung with a verve that you’ll…

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Fighting Fear in Your Caregiving Life

What scares you most as a caregiver? The ailing health of your loved one? Not having time for yourself or…

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Tackling the Inevitable Changes in Your Life

One of the most challenging aspects of both life and caregiving is change. Change is a constant for all of…

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Sleep and How to Get More of It

One of the easiest things we do in life is sleep. Once embraced in its warm folds, we recuperate, replenish,…

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Get Moving! You Can Do It!

The demands of caregiving can make exercise seem like an unachievable challenge. Perhaps you can’t leave your loved one alone,…

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Emerging from Our Caregiving Bubbles

The past year has been a challenging one, particularly for caregivers. In addition to the normal isolation and stress of…

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Fighting for Your Loved Ones Against Internet Scams

Internet crime skyrocketed by 69 percent last year, and the elderly and disabled were one of the prime targets for…

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A Changing World & How to Navigate It

Just over a year ago, change swept through the world. Active people were suddenly spending their days at home. Confusion…

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Caregiving the Tiny Way

Sometimes the challenges of caregiving leave little time for caring for yourself.   When your loved one’s needs are overwhelming,…

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The Fruits of Kindness and Love

The past year has been a challenge, but it has also brought to the fore many helpers, from hospital workers…

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How to Have a Happy Holiday (in a Pandemic)

The holidays can be a time of family, festivity, and fun. For some, they may also create loneliness and money…

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Caregiving and Humor: An Essential Combination

Last month’s blog on the importance of laughter received such positive feedback that I thought the topic deserved a second…

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Laugh, Laugh, Laugh: How to Bring Humor Into Your Caregiving Life

Laughter truly is the best medicine. When my husband, Don, suffered a massive stroke and became a quadriplegic, I thought…

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Bring a Spark of Creativity Into Your Caregiving Life

Creativity and caregiving go hand in hand! Invariably caregivers have stories of how they used creativity to overcome problems and…

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The Unpredictability of Caregiving

This has been a year of unpredictability for everyone, but even in normal times, unpredictability is often the constant companion…

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Help Us Give a Helping Hand

This year has been filled with unimaginable difficulties and challenges for all of us, especially caregivers in need. The coronavirus…

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Keeping Your Spirits Up in a Trying Time

In the midst of a pandemic, hope can seem hard to find. Anger, frustration, and dismay may seem like easy…

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Guest Blog: Employment Rights for Caregivers

The American Cancer Society defines a caregiver as anyone not paid to provide care to a loved one. Whether a…

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Navigating the Waters of Social Isolation

Across much of the world, social distancing has meant that caregivers can no longer visit relatives in nursing homes. Caregiver…

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Coronavirus and Caregiving: Health, Home & Heart—A Team Effort

You may wonder what you can do as a caregiver to protect your ailing loved one. First, don’t panic. A…

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Love and Caregiving: A Magic Combination

This love may flow back and forth between the one receiving care and the caregiver in a way that deepens…

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Guest Blog: Millennials & Caregiving

I became a caregiver to my mother who was diagnosed with colon cancer the summer after I graduated from high…

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Make Your 2020 Caregiving Year a Happy One!

A new year can be a time to reflect. How did the previous year work for me, my family, my…

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How to Bring Joy into Your Caregiving This Holiday Season

Our holiday tradition always included making gingerbread houses. My husband, Don, and I would invite over a couple of our…

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Family & Caregiving: A Thankful Combination

Thanksgiving is a time to celebrate family connections. However, for caregivers, family relationships can be complicated. Sometimes, resentment may arise…

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Tackling Fear in Caregiving

Caregiving can be scary—not in the way a Halloween horror flick provokes fear—but instead the way real life does. Caregiving…

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The Power of Caregiving Friends

When I was my husband’s caregiver, I wish I could have more easily connected with others experiencing similar issues. Now,…

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Are you a caregiver sandwich?

As the summer comes to a close and the school year revs up, one category of caregivers faces unique challenges:…

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Vacationing for Caregivers

Vacations and caregiving may not seem like natural partners, but they can be. Almost everyone needs an occasional break from…

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The Gift of Reading

Even while stuck waiting in the hospital or sitting isolated at home, a book provides a simple way to transport…

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It’s a vacation…until it isn’t!

The last thing anyone wants to do when planning a vacation is anticipate a medical emergency. Whether you’re in a…

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Put spring into caregiving

Why not welcome the spring into your caregiving life! Newly blooming flowers and the warm spring sunlight can be a…

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The Upside of “The Upside”

Caregiving is rarely the subject of a movie, but this year’s “The Upside” delves into the ups and down of…

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Bringing Love to Your Caregiver

February is the traditional month of love. Stores leap at the opportunity to offer candy, flowers, and jewelry to lovers.…

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New Year, New Caregiving You!

A new year can provide a special opportunity to reevaluate one’s life and make some new choices. Are you devoting…

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How to Have a Happy Caregiving Holiday

How can you take extra time to make the holidays merry when you already have so much to do as…

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Making Time For Gratitude

November, the month of Thanksgiving, is an ideal time to consider how giving thanks can improve our lives. As caregivers,…

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It’s A Kick-Ass Kinda Day

Nearly thirteen years later I welcome the on-sale day for my memoir, Kick-Ass Kinda Girl. There are no words to…

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Moving Caregivers from Surviving To Thriving

Caregivers often fall into existing in either crisis mode or chronic mode, according to Dr. Lee Baucom, author of “Thrive…

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“Kick-Ass Kinda Girl: A Memoir of Life, Love & Caregiving”

I did it. I never thought I could, but I have! It’s hard for me to believe, but after more…

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Bringing Technology to Caregiving

Just as new technology has changed television and telephones, it’s also changing caregiving. For busy caregivers who need time to…

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Series: Expert Caregiver Tips from Peter Rosenberger

This year, I will be sharing insights from other caregiving experts like Peter Rosenberger, who I met when he interviewed…

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Helping Caregivers Through Their Challenges

Sometimes life’s little things are hard to manage. For example, Jess Esquivel’s grandmother needed wheels and a basket for her…

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Finding One’s Way As a Caregiver

When Tina Lewis’ mother became ill, life became tumultuous and exhausting. Not only was her mother suffering, but Lewis, an…

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Bringing Back the Joy: How to Find Happiness for Caregivers and Survivors

When a stroke or other sudden health event has wreaked havoc on a couple’s life together, retaining intimacy and joy…

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A Path to Emotional Support for Caregivers

Caregivers suffer disproportionately from depression, anxiety and loneliness, but each caregiver can take one step that will help combat all…

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Getting Support: The Challenges Caregivers Face and How to Overcome Them

When people becomes parents for the first time, they encounter a new world with demands and stresses and joys that…

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How to Find Help– Tips for Caregivers and Loved Ones

Strangely enough, when someone suffers from a stroke or other debilitating ailment, at least two people end up needing help—the…

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Entering the Medical World As a Caregiver

When you are suddenly thrust into life as a caregiver, handling a loved one’s medical needs can be one of…

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What to Do When the End Is Near

One of the most heart-wrenching aspects of being a caregiver is deciding how to let go of your loved one.…

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How to Build a Caregiver Support System

When suddenly thrust into life as a caregiver, one needs support—financial, social, emotional, and physical—but how and where do you…

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Financial Tips for New Caregivers

When one suddenly becomes a caregiver, the challenges can be immense and confusing.Aside from the varied emotional and medical stresses,…

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Keeping Intimacy Alive

Keeping intimacy alive is a challenge in any relationship, but when one partner has had a stroke, the challenges can…

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New Year’s Resolution For The Caregiver: Be Kinder To Yourself

It’s the New Year and that time that we start thinking about how we’re going to do things differently, and…

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Enjoying the Holidays After a Stroke

After my husband suffered a catastrophic stroke in 2005, the holidays didn’t seem so merry. I found myself yearning for…

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A Conversation with My Grandchildren

After a parent or grandparent becomes disabled, how will a child react? We recently did a piece that offered advice…

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How to Talk to Kids When a Disability Strikes a Loved One

When a parent or grandparent has a stroke or other sudden health incident and has become fully or partially disabled,…

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A KKF Recipient Shares What its Like to be a Caregiver

The following is a Q&A with Suzanne A., a Southern California-based caregiver and recent Kathi Koll Foundation recipient. Suzanne is…

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Acceptance is the Answer

In our work with caregivers, one of the issues we see all the time is the challenge that people have…

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Holiday Tips for the Caregiver

The holidays can be stressful under ideal circumstances, The holidays can be a tough time of year, particularly for caregivers.…

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Signs of a stroke

With National Stroke Awareness Month coming to a close, I wanted to send a friendly reminder to everyone about the…

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Being Prepared

Last week, I met a woman whose husband suffered a serious health incident. She was in the process of setting…

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Coping with Guilt

We all experience feelings of guilt from time or time. As caregivers, we can feel guilty about leaving the patient…

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The Best Way to Support Those at the End of Life

I’ve found most helpful in supporting those at the end-of-life is to focus on them and what they want, without…

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How to Support Your Caregiver Friend

When a friend’s spouse experiences a stroke or other significant health incident, the inclination is to support the patient. Particularly…

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Gratitude as a Tool

It’s November and the beginning of the holiday season, which has me thinking about the many blessings I have to…

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Getting out of Feeling Overwhelmed

With the change of seasons now upon us and school and work schedules resumed, many of us can start to…

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Honoring Life At All Stages

I traveled to Santa Barbara last week to tour two hospice houses and explore what other communities were doing to…

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What NOT to do if you’ve got the blues

This week, I spoke at the Fullerton Rotary Club and got a number of questions from audience members about how…

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Enjoying the Summer after Adversity

With summer already here, it’s gotten me thinking about the things I did for fun in the summer despite the…

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It’s the Adversities in Life that Make Us Stronger

Summer is a bridge of time between spring and fall that gives us a time to relax and reflect. A…

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Three things to help you get through adversity

I have received numerous emails from people asking us how I dealt with certain issues. Questions have spanned the spectrum…

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