Strategies for Caregivers

Strategies for Caregivers | Hospice of Michigan: Caregivers need to take care of themselves beginning at day one of caring for a sick loved one. Multiple studies have documented the emotional and physical impact of caregiving for a loved one who is at the end of life.

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Caregiving at Least 8 Ways

Caregiving at Least 8 Ways | Hospice of Michigan: According to the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP, there are more than 65 million caregivers in the U.S. Some may not identify themselves as “caregiver,” yet they provide physical, emotional or financial support for a loved one who is ill. Understanding the different caregiver roles creates opportunities for caregivers to access support.

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Who is a caregiver?

HOM’s Case for Caregivers | Hospice of Michigan:

• A caregiver is anyone providing informal, unpaid care for someone they love – a member of their family, a friend, a partner.
• The typical caregiver is a 49-year-old woman who is caring for her widowed 69-year-old mother who does not live with her.
• 66% of caregivers are women
• 40% are employed
• 37% have children or grandchildren living with them
• They offer an average of 20 hours a week of care to their loved one.
• This care is unpaid.
• 25% of caregivers are low-income
• In Michigan, the annual economic value of the unpaid labor exceeds $10 billion.

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Get to Know: Isaiah's Promise

Home Page: Support for Parents Continuing Their Pregnancy After a Poor or Fatal Diagnosis

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‘Incompatible with Life’ is a judgment not a diagnosis

‘Incompatible with Life’ is a judgment not a diagnosis | LifeSiteNews.com: Healthcare professionals use terminology to convey information about a patient’s diagnosis. Unfortunately, when explaining the diagnosis, objective, factual, information gets mixed in with opinion and value judgments. This can lead to an understanding on the part of the parents of an unborn child that their child no longer exists in the eyes of the medical profession and there is no reason to continue the pregnancy.

Parents are not only stunned to learn that their unborn child has a poor prenatal diagnosis but the parents also come away with the perception that their child’s condition has usurped its right to life – any life, no matter the duration.

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Is it morally wrong to take a life? Not really, say bioethicists

BioEdge: Is it morally wrong to take a life? Not really, say bioethicists: Is it morally wrong to kill people? Not really, argue two eminent American bioethicists in an early online article in the Journal of Medical Ethics. Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, of Duke University, and Franklin G. Miller, of the National Institutes of Health believe that “killing by itself is not morally wrong, although it is still morally wrong to cause total disability.” Ultimately their aim is to justify organ donation after cardiac death (DCD).

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Doctors call for a moratorium on donation after cardiac death

BioEdge: Doctors call for a moratorium on donation after cardiac death: Several paediatricians writing in the latest issue of Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine have called for a moratorium on donating organs after cardiac death (DCD) until a number of troubling issues have been resolved.

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Assisted suicide is cheaper than caring, warns doctor

Assisted suicide is cheaper than caring, warns doctor | News | The Christian Institute: An experienced doctor who works with terminal patients has asked whether assisted suicide is just a cost-saving exercise.

Dr Elizabeth A Burroughs, in a letter to a national newspaper, said: “Quality palliative care costs money; assisted suicide is a cheaper option. But how long would it be before pressure was being placed on the terminally ill to ‘do the decent thing’?” Dr Burroughs also commented: “In 30 years as a GP, I was asked by at most a handful of terminally ill patients to hasten their deaths. In 17 years working in hospices I cannot recall ever having received such a request from a patient, although I have had more than one from relatives.”

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Second bid to change the law on assisted suicide

MSP in second bid to change the law on assisted suicide | News | The Christian Institute: Margo MacDonald’s last attempt to legalise assisted suicide in Scotland was soundly rejected in 2010 by 85 votes to 16. Now the Lothians MSP has launched a consultation on a proposed new Bill which would allow those suffering from a terminal illness to end their lives.

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Govt opposes paralysed man’s bid for euthanasia

Govt opposes paralysed man’s bid for euthanasia | News | The Christian Institute: The High Court case [UK] of a paralysed man who wants a doctor to be allowed to kill him should be dismissed, the Ministry of Justice has said. The Government says there are “compelling reasons” for the court not to get involved in Tony Nicklinson’s case, saying that only Parliament can make such a decision. A medical ethics expert cautioned that cases such as Mr Nicklinson’s are “extremely rare and hard cases make bad law."

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Promoting “Pro Life” Interpretation of Advance Directives in Europe

Wesley J. Smith: The Council of Europe has passed a resolution promoting advanced directives in the EU. Some are claiming this as a victory against voluntary euthanasia. Perhaps. But, I like this part the most because it explicitly instructs that a dependent patient’s care is not to be determined by general community values–often anti elderly and disabled–and how, in cases of doubt, advance directives are to be interpreted:

7.8. surrogate decisions that rely on general value judgements present in society should not be admissible and, in case of doubt, the decision must always be pro-life and the prolongation of life. From “Protecting Human Rights and Dignity by Taking Into Account Previously Expressed Wishes of Patients:”

Researchers replicate Alzheimer's disease neurons with stem cells

FoxNews: To create the neurons, the researchers extracted fibroblasts—cells from the skin—of two patients with familial Alzheimer’s, two patients with sporadic Alzheimer’s and two people with no known neurological problems. The researchers then reprogrammed the fibroblasts into stem cells, which then differentiated into working neurons. The neurons may prove to be a crucial tool for studying the causes of Alzheimer’s, as well as developing and testing drugs to treat the disease.

As America ages, millions try to juggle ailing parents’ caregiving needs from afar

As America ages, millions try to juggle ailing parents’ caregiving needs from afar - The Washington Post: The National Institute on Aging estimates around 7 million Americans are long-distance caregivers. Aside from economic factors that often drive people far from their hometowns, shifting demographics in the country could exacerbate the issue: Over the next four decades, the share of people 65 and older is expected to rapidly expand while the number of people under 20 will roughly hold steady. That means there will be a far smaller share of people between 20 and 64, the age group that most often is faced with caregiving.

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Major victory for life in Europe: ‘Euthanasia must always be prohibited’

Major victory for life in Europe: ‘Euthanasia must always be prohibited’ | LifeSiteNews.com: Yesterday, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a resolution stating: “Euthanasia, in the sense of the intentional killing by act or omission of a dependent human being for his or her alleged benefit, must always be prohibited.”

The purpose of the resolution, entitled “Protecting human rights and dignity by taking into account previously expressed wishes of patients”, defines the principles that should govern the practice of “living wills” or “advance directives” in the 47 States of the Council of Europe.

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Depression’s Criteria May Be Changed to Include Grieving

Depression’s Criteria May Be Changed to Include Grieving - NYTimes.com: The new report, by psychiatric researchers from Columbia and New York Universities, argues that the current definition of depression — which excludes bereavement, the usual grieving after the loss of a loved one — is far more accurate. If the “bereavement exclusion” is eliminated, they say, “there is the potential for considerable false-positive diagnosis and unnecessary treatment of grief-stricken persons.” Drugs for depression can have side effects, including low sex drive and sleeping problems. But experts who support the new definition say sometimes grieving people need help.

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British man with "locked-in syndrome" fights for right to die

British man with "locked-in syndrome," Tony Nicklinson, fights for right to die - HealthPop - CBS News: Does former rugby player Tony Nicklinson deserve the right to die? Seven years after suffering a paralyzing stroke that left him immobile and unable to speak, the 57-year-old recently asked Britain's High Court to allow a doctor to give him a lethal injection without facing any penalty. Nicklinson petitioned the court to ensure that whoever ends his life won't be jailed and charged with murder. This week, the court will hold its first hearing on the case.

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After the death of Jack Kevorkian, a new public face of American assisted suicide

After the death of Jack Kevorkian, a new public face of American assisted suicide - The Washington Post: Lawrence Egbert, a retired anesthesiologist from Baltimore, has helped about 300 people commit suicide, but, he says, “I never get used to it.”

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We have to try harder, say Belgian euthanasia doctors. We’re only #2

BioEdge: We have to try harder, say Belgian euthanasia doctors. We’re only #2: A group called the Life End Information Forum (LEIF) was formed in 2002 in Belgium as soon as euthanasia was legalised. Since the new law required a second, confirming opinion if someone requested euthanasia, there was a need for experienced doctors. “Consulting a LEIF physician contributes to the careful practice of euthanasia,” say the researchers. Disappointingly only 35% of those who had received a euthanasia request since LEIF became active had made use of LEIF.

They recommend that the government and medical associations actively promote LEIF, that the LEIF specialists be paid for consultations, and that LEIF promote its services “as widely as possible.” Although LEIF has been “relatively successful”, it seems apparent that the Belgian researchers were a wee bit dejected by the contrast with a very active end-of-life consultation service in the neighbouring Netherlands.

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Euthanasia campaigner Dr Philip Nitschke faces death probe

Euthanasia campaigner Dr Philip Nitschke faces death probe | Herald Sun: An investigator has been appointed to determine whether it was "good medical practice" for Dr Nitschke to attempt to legally import the death drug Nembutal as a sedative for the 61-year-old woman, who had spoken of ending her life to escape "an awful death."

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Focus on care, not assisted suicide, say MPs

Video: Focus on care, not assisted suicide, say MPs | News | The Christian Institute: “Rather than legislating for an abrupt end to life, we need to find better ways to help care for the dying”, an MP has said as he led a debate on palliative care in Parliament.

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Administration doesn't want incentive for more bone marrow for deathly ill

Administration doesn't want incentive for more bone marrow for deathly ill: Payment to donors: The Obama administration has asked a federal appeals court to reconsider its ruling that most bone marrow donors can be compensated for providing life-saving marrow cells harvested from their bloodstreams.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously on Dec. 1 that bone marrow filtered from a donor's blood was a blood part, not an organ part, and could be legally sold.

But in a petition for rehearing by a full 11-judge panel of the court, U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said the three-judge panel had ignored the clear intent of Congress to prevent money from influencing donation decisions.

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Weak and Loved

Weak and Loved: It was a time of abundant, noisy blessings for Emily Cook. Five children, age 5 and younger, energetically consumed her food, her time, and her heart. Then, in the fall of 2008, this loud and happy life was shattered by a deafening silence. Bouncy four-year-old Aggie was stopped in her tracks by a seizure--It was to be the first of many.

This story includes no clichés or easy answers, and it is not an attempt to answer complicated questions of human suffering. Rather, it is a demonstration of God's faithfulness toward one sick child and her imperfect mother: both weak, but both loved. Aggie had a brain tumor that disrupted her young life; her mother’s sin and selfishness disrupted her best attempts to care for her. Written from the perspective of a mother who suffers with her child, Weak and Loved allows readers to experience the struggles of faith and encouragement of God. Readers will enter the difficult, earthy, and sometimes humorous world of a sick child, and be pleased to find the beauty of God's love in Christ even there.

Follow Emily's blog

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Using Computer Models to Ration Health Care?

Using Computer Models to Ration Health Care? » Secondhand Smoke | A First Things Blog: Could a computer program predicting how long a patient has to live be put to pernicious heatlhcare rationing effect, similar to the “quality adjusted life year” (QALY) that was used by NICE to ration medicine in the UK?

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True Palliative Care Involves a Respect for Human Life

True Palliative Care Involves a Respect for Human Life | LifeNews.com: Physicians in Massachusetts grasp a fundamental distinction that proponents of assisted suicide elide. That is the difference between choosing to cause death and choosing instead to provide comfort, knowing, but not intending, that death might be hastened as a result.

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Alleviating Suffering 101 — Pain Relief in the US

Alleviating Suffering 101 — Pain Relief in the United States — NEJM: The magnitude of pain in the United States is astounding. More than 116 million Americans have pain that persists for weeks to years. The total financial costs of this epidemic are $560 billion to $635 billion per year, according to Relieving Pain in America, 1 the recent report of an Institute of Medicine committee that we cochaired. And these figures don't include pain in children or people in long-term care facilities, the military, or prison.

Subscription required to read the article

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Pushing Euthanasia as the Rule

Pushing Euthanasia as the Rule | NRL News Today: The Belgian medical establishment’s enthusiastic embrace of euthanasia has been breathtaking and appalling to behold. Now a study is out stating that a euthanasia counseling service is being underutilized by Belgian doctors.

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1st annual conference on medical advances in prenatal diagnoses

The  Council on Poor Prenatal Diagnoses & Therapeutic Intervention conference will bring together professionals from many different specialty areas, including genetic researchers, ob/gyn physicians, developmental pediatricians, hospital nursing staff, medical genetic counselors and medical students. Other invited participants and guests include peer ministry providers, social service support professionals, advocates for persons with disabilities and public policy specialists.

An agenda for the day will be available soon. Our host for the day, the Family Research Council (FRC), has limited space, so this first Conference is by invitation only. However, FRC will be webcasting all general sessions that day, which can be viewed via www.frc.org. For more information, contact Jeanne Monahan at Family Research Council, (800-225-4008) or Peg Kolm at (240-994-0603).We welcome your interest and expertise in this effort, and hope you can join us on January 21.

Assisted suicide still a no-go in Aloha State

Assisted suicide still a no-go in Aloha State (OneNewsNow.com): In spite of proponents' unique approach to legalize it, Hawaii's ban on doctor-assisted suicide remains in place. Supporters of assisted suicide tried to use a 1909 law that permits the use remedies not typically authorized for terminally ill patients, but Hawaii Attorney General David Louie has responded in a legal opinion that the state law "does not authorize physicians to assist terminally ill patients with dying."

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Miracle met Tim Tebow

Miracle fan set to meet Tim Tebow - BostonHerald.com: Zack McLeod will be visited by a gridiron god met quarterback Tim Tebow before Saturday night’s divisional playoff game against the AFC East champion Patriots, courtesy of the Christian Baptist icon’s W15H Program and Florida-based Dreams Come True.

“This might sound odd, but I think Tim Tebow is doing the same thing on a national scale that our son Zack does on a very small scale — directing people’s attention toward God. Both are captivated by God’s love for them and can’t help but broadcast it to the world,” McLeod’s father told the Herald yesterday.

Although his son can barely speak, and will likely never recover enough to finish his education, hold a job or live alone, Pat McLeod said the former cornerback — much like Tebow — is “continually on his knees praying.”

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Unaccountable healthcare 'experts'

Unaccountable healthcare 'experts' (OneNewsNow.com): buried deep within the healthcare law's 2,801 pages of foggy prose is a provision to create a panel of bureaucrats with final authority on what treatments will and will not be paid for by Medicare, the federal insurance program that serves nearly 48 million seniors and disabled individuals. It's called the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), a 15-member committee whose cost-cutting edicts are not subject to review by the courts or the people.

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Woman says daughter denied transplant because of mental disability

South Jersey woman says daughter was denied transplant because of mental disability — NewsWorks: For doctors, transplant eligibility for those with mental disabilities is seen in shades of gray, not the same black and white. When determining eligibility for kidney transplants for mentally disabled adults, doctors would consider whether patients could take their post-transplant medication reliably, or have a support system to ensure they would. For kids, that kind of care is always the job of the parents. So the question becomes one of quality of life: how much better would life be for the child if he or she got the transplant rather than going on dialysis?

In her blog, the mother quotes this exchange with the doctor:

“So you mean to tell me that as a doctor, you are not recommending the transplant, and when her kidneys fail in six months to a year, you want me to let her die because she is mentally retarded? There is no other medical reason for her not to have this transplant other than she is MENTALLY RETARDED!”
“Yes, [said the doctor]. This is hard for me, you know.”

Related:
Is intellectual disability a reason to deny an organ transplant?
Wesley J. Smith commentary

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Controversial UK commission backs assisted suicide

BioEdge: Controversial UK commission backs assisted suicide: The UK should legalise assisted suicide, says a report by a private group headed by former lord chancellor Lord Falconer. The Commission on Assisted Dying, which, despite its official-sounding name, was funded by a right-to-die activist, argues that it is possible to craft a law which will allow people with terminal illness to die without danger of coercion, provided that strict safeguards were observed.

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Thriving through touch: Gentle massage helps older people with low mobility improve in mind and body

Thriving through touch: Gentle massage helps older people with low mobility improve in mind and body: The woman — in her 80s — hadn't spoken in months. The nursing home staff figured she had lost the ability. But after six silent months of regular massage sessions, massage therapist Dawn Nelson heard a soft voice utter: "That feels good."

Nelson, author of From the Heart Through the Hands and creator of the program "Compassionate Touch For Those in Later Life Stages," says massage has improved quality of life for many older, not-so-mobile clients. In addition to boosting circulation, easing stress and relieving aches and pains, all important physiologically for people who don't move around much, massage bestows a basic human need the elderly often go without: touch."

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Assisted Suicide’s Deadly Threat to Elderly

Assisted Suicide’s Deadly Threat to Elderly » Secondhand Smoke | A First Things Blog: The Sunday Times has a good editorial out opposing the legalization of assisted suicide in the UK, which is now in the midst of a big policy push seen there every few years. It is worth reading the whole thing, but Wesley Smith focuses on two points that are especially salient.

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When caregiving, don't let elderly parents push your buttons

When caregiving, don't let elderly parents push your buttons | PennLive.com: Q: Whenever I sit down to work on a caregiving problem with my parents, they push my buttons and it ends on a sour note. Can you help me sort this out? Blogger Linda Rhodes offers some advice.

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Though our son never breathed outside the womb, his life was worth living

Though our son never breathed outside the womb, his life was worth living | LifeSiteNews.com: At my next doctor’s appointment, he looked puzzled and asked me what I was here for. When I told him I was there for my prenatal check-up, he said, “What for? You do know your baby isn’t going to survive, right?”

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Washington May Not Put Assisted Suicide on Death Certificates

Washington May Not Put Assisted Suicide on Death Certificates | LifeNews.com: In Washington, doctors who assist suicides are currently legally required to lie on death certificates. Rather than list the actual cause of death–assisted suicide–they are instead required to list the underlying disease–even though it didn’t factually. This is a profound corruption of civic processes.

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Bringing Death into the Light was Never Crazy

Bringing Death into the Light was Never Crazy | First Things: For a society that has experienced death as a hidden thing—something that happens behind a closed door or within the depths of a womb via suction hose—bringing death out into the light might seem “crazy” and “weird,” especially to a perpetually adolescent mind that has no concept of the sort of victory that can be found there.

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My Brother's Life: Very Valuable Despite Down Syndrome

My Brother's Life: Very Valuable Despite Down Syndrome | LifeNews.com: Cal Thomas was seven years old when his brother Marshall was born. "A year or two later when the diagnosis [of Down syndrome] was made, I bought a popular book written by Dale Evans and gave it to our parents. It was called Angel Unaware. The title was taken from a verse in the New Testament which says, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” (Hebrews 13:2) Evans’ book was about the Down syndrome child she had with her husband, Roy Rogers."

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‘Biased’ assisted suicide report under fire from critics

‘Biased’ assisted suicide report under fire from critics | News | The Christian Institute: The report, which was produced by the UK Commission on Assisted Dying, says that adults who are thought to have less than a year to live should be able to ask doctors for drugs which would end their life. But Dr Peter Saunders, campaign director of the pro-life group Care Not Killing, said: “This investigation was unnecessary, biased and lacking in transparency, and its report is seriously flawed. It is being spun as a comprehensive, objective and independent review into this complicated issue. It is anything but.”

Related: 'Strong case' for assisted suicide in UK

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Target ad worth a thousand words

The stylish young man in the orange shirt is Ryan, who happens to have been born with Down syndrome. This wasn’t a “Special Clothing For Special People” catalog. There wasn’t a call-out somewhere on the page proudly proclaiming Target’s pride over featuring a model with Down syndrome in their ad. And they didn’t even have him to model a shirt with the phrase, “We Aren’t All Angels” printed on the front. Noah's Dad blog

Handful of states promise physicians online access to advance directives

amednews: Handful of states promise physicians online access to advance directives :: Jan. 3, 2012 ... American Medical News: By connecting the advance directive to an information exchange, a physician could access it without having to contact family or caregivers, or find out a patient's login and password to current online registry programs. That connection would allow a physician to follow through on the patient's wishes without any obligation to contact anyone. When physicians will have that access depends on when each state has its information exchange up and running.

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An Oregon study points to better end-of-life care planning

An Oregon study points to better end-of-life care planning | OregonLive.com: Oregon researchers found that 18,000 people, or 72 percent of those in the registry, did not want CPR. But many wanted other treatment, including hospital care. About 55 percent wanted the option of antibiotics for infections. Nearly one-quarter considered a temporary feeding tube appropriate.

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Exercise and Alzheimer's Disease

Exercise and Alzheimer's Disease: No matter what our age or health condition, physical activity is good for the body, mind and spirit.

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Top 10 Resolutions for Family Caregivers

Top 10 Resolutions for Family Caregivers: Family caregivers are just about the busiest people around! But it's worthwhile to set aside a few minutes for creating resolutions that will make 2012 more meaningful and less stressful.

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