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The Caregiver Club
Maybe it begins with a crisis. Mom fell and broke her hip.
Maybe it begins when you go home for the holidays and see that your parents' once cared-for house is in disarray.
Maybe it begins when a small yet significant change, like Dad's inability to find his car keys, helps you recognize that there has been a slow and steady decline.
That's when you realize that your life is about to change in a dramatic way. You're about to join the ranks of family caregivers, supporting aging parents or a sick spouse or an ailing friend.
That's when you realize that your life is about to change in a dramatic way. You're about to join the ranks of family caregivers, supporting aging parents or a sick spouse or an ailing friend .
Welcome to the club!
You will have lots of surprises along the way. You hadn't realized how difficult and time consuming this job would be. You hadn't planned for the out-of-pocket expenses. You hadn't expected to feel so alone and overwhelmed.
The Caregiver Club is a resource that helps you and your loved one enjoy optimal health and wellness. You'll learn to care for yourself as you care for others. You'll see what to say and what to do so you and your loved one get the best health care possible. Most importantly, you will get support for keeping your "eye on the ball" and remembering that caregiving is an act of love (and a privilege) along with the renewed hope that you can do it!
As a member of the Caregiver Club, you will get
- Practical tips that will assure that you and your loved ones are getting the most from your days and avoid common bumps in the road
- Advice about what to say and what to do to assure that your parents or loved ones are getting the best health care possible
- Ideas that will help you lower the cost of caring for your aging parents
- Renewed hope that you will make it through the tough times
- Hope that your efforts offer a legacy of love
You and your loved one benefit by
- Decreasing out-of-pocket expenses
- Saving time by avoiding common mistakes
- Decreasing stress
- Shifting your perspective so that you find the joy in this relationship and see family caregiving as an act of love
Measures of success
The success of any health intervention, including membership in the Caregiver Club, can be hard to measure. Some results, like your overall savings on medical expenses and financial contributions to your parents are easy to track. The goals of this program, including your ability to enjoy health and develop confidence that you are doing the best job possible as a caregiver, cannot be measured in black and white.
Some goalposts that can help assess your progress toward your caregiver goals include
- Your medical savings
- Your financial contributions to your parents
- Your level of energy and stress
- Your satisfaction with doctor appointments
- Your understanding of medical options
- Your "quality of life" score
- Your productivity
- Your satisfaction with your relationships at home and at work
- Your ability to experience caregiving as an act of love so that when you go to bed at night, you know that you did your very best that day.
We offer three membership options:
The Silver, The Gold and The Platinum
The Silver Program
- The Monthly Caregiver Club newsletter
- Participation in monthly Caring for the Caregiver teleseminars that help you care for yourself
- Participation in monthly Patient Advocate teleseminars that help you become collaborative members of your loved one’s health care team
- Participation in monthly group "coach on call" telephone sessions
- A copy of The Personal Health Journal to help manage your health stories
- Access to a library of caregiving articles, videos and a daily blog
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Monthly Calendar |
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Week 1 Caregiver Club Newsletter
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Week 2 Caring for the Caregiver teleseminar
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Week 3 Patient Advocate teleseminar
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Week 4 Coach on call session
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The Gold Program
- All of the elements of the Silver Program
- An initial telephone consultation to define your loved one's current health status as well as your own
- A review, translation and interpretation of all medical records that you provide to the consulting doctors
- A definition of your caregiver goals
- An outline of both short-term and long-term strategies, including ideas for concrete day-to-day choices, and a plan to achieve these goals
- A follow-up assessment phone call one month after the initial consultation
- Weekly scheduled private coaching calls (one hour in duration) for 60 days
The Platinum Program
All of the elements of the Gold Program
Unlimited email and phone access for 60 days
Note: To assure each client receives the highest level of service and attention, I accept only a limited number of members to The Gold and Platinum Programs.
Caring for the Caregiver Teleseminar Series
- Caregiving is not a standardized test, but here's how you score big: The Big Caregiver Picture
- Guilt will eat you alive: Learn to manage caregiver disappointment, guilt and other dark feelings
- Being nice is hazardous to your health: How to heal the disease to please
- Honor thy parents: Healing family wounds
- The gracious way of asking for what you want and need
- Learn the language of love to avoid caregiver burnout and depression
- Give me strength: What you can change and what you cannot
- Hang onto hope and build resilience
- 10 little-know ways to cut the costs of caring for your aging parents
- Forgiveness: The caregiver's secret weapon
- Keeping sane and healthy during the holiday season
- The "D" word: Planning for death and managing grief
Patient Advocate Circle Teleseminar Series
- What is a patient advocate and why is having one all that important?
- Fear factor: make it work for you
- Dying of embarrassment
- Pain is the messenger; Don't shoot it
- The medication makeover and other insider tips for lowering the cost of health care
- Modern medical manners: the gracious way of getting what you want and need from your doctor
- Life-saving reasons why you need to influence your loved ones' medical choices
- Second medical opinions: Just do it!
- Getting the most from your doctor appointments and avoiding common traps
- Finding Dr. Right and getting this doctor to really listen
- How to make hospital stays short, sweet and safe
- The information prescription: Making sense of breaking medical news and (mis)information on the Internet
- Speak up: Exercising patient rights
- Does it really matter? What to do when your loved one does not follow doctors' orders
- Naiveté about the difference between doctors and patients "Doctors are from Mars; patients are from Venus."
- Ignored intuition "The doctor-within"
- Confusion between curing and healing
- The myth of quality time "Your 17 minutes with the doctor"
- The myth of normal "Shifting from "Am I normal?" to "Is this normal for me?"
Contact Dr. Vicki's speaking agent for more information.
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