Kristen remembers the exact day she became a caregiver, the day her husband was discharged from the hospital months after his spinal cord injury. Kristen learned the ropes from the nurses, mastering all the necessary techniques to take care…
“Relationships are tough enough, and sometimes it’s very hard to be the caregiver and the lover.” https://youtu.be/x64Mu5T36Io “We always think of the significant other to be the caregiver,” says Diane Rowles, a nurse practitioner from the Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation…
At the start of his life as a tetraplegic, Aaron faced communication barriers that made things challenging with his new helper. In order to best train his helper, he shared a clear routine to make things simple. https://youtu.be/hiF6gxAdqSg “My mum…
Finding helpers can be tough. “We go through agents for our foreign domestic helpers or just go online…It’s not really tips it’s luck. Finding a good helper requires luck”, says Aaron. https://youtu.be/tPYg294vMv4 Communication plays an important role. The information given…
Every caregiver has to deal with managing caregiving stress regardless of the disability of the person they are caring for. When a family member has had to assume the role, it changes roles and habits in a family while…
“What’s important is that you have to treat them well. They are human beings after all.” Aaron highlights the importance of having a connection with your caregiver and being on the same page. It’s not necessarily easy to establish a caregiving relationship, but…
Kristen was intimidated at first to learn a safe method for transferring a ventilator-dependent quadriplegic on her own. As her husband’s primary caregiver, she had to learn. “I would have never thought it possible to do a transfer like this by myself,”…
Working with caregivers can be a challenge, especially when you’re coming to terms with needing to rely on someone else for basic daily functions. Marie, a quadriplegic since age 22, shares her top tips for working with caregivers to help both…
Gentrie is a caregiver and partner of a quadriplegic, who has an MS in communication, focusing on the interpersonal dynamics of caregiving support. Not only is she knowledgable for her own personal experience, but she has worked tirelessly to…
"Sometimes I can't believe my husband is paralyzed. I've gotten fairly used to this life in the relatively short amount of time we've lived it. How we have to expect the unexpected. How we can't just hop in the car…