Seniors For Living

With one tweeter describing himself as a Big Mac (he’s caring for his son, a wife who has FTLD, a form of dementia, and his father, who has cancer), the 67 participants in this week’s installment of #ElderCareChat talked about life as “sandwiched” caregivers. The hour flew by as attendees shared survival tips, the benefits of multi-generational households, how to balance everyone’s needs (including your own), and suggestions for managing strollers and wheelchairs – a few chatters even came up with a great invention idea for that one.

The group benefited from insights offered by @bettebythesea, a regular blogger at Caregiving.com and sandwich generation caregiver for 9 years and counting: she’s been caring for her mom at home while balancing the needs of her three children (ages 9, 12 and 15). Another Caregiving.com blogger, @jorozier, also joined us; he cares for his parents, who both have Alzheimer’s, and his teenagers.

Framing the conversation were the following questions:

1. What are the challenges for those who care for aging relatives and children?
2. When everyone needs you, how do you choose whose needs to meet first?
3. How do you talk to children about the unique needs of an aging relative?
4. How can you involve children in caregiving?
5. What tips can you suggest to manage the guilt that haunts a sandwiched caregiver?
6. What tips can you share for managing a wheelchair and a stroller?
7. What are the benefits of a multi-generational living situation?
8. What changes can we make in our communities to better meet the needs of the sandwiched caregiver?

Here are a few highlights:

For more tips and insights on managing life in the middle, check out the full transcript. As always, big thanks to Craig Fukushima, aka @ctffox, with The Fox Group, for providing this excellent resource and record of our conversation. Click here to review it, and be sure to share it with others who could use some inspiration in dealing with the stress of the season.

See who was there and get the average number of tweets per participant with these #ElderCareChat analytics.

Don’t miss our next chat: Wednesday, February 1st at 1pm ET. We welcome elder care professionals, long-distance caregivers, former caregivers, advocates – essentially, anyone who is interested in eldercare issues.

If the time frame doesn’t sync with your schedule, start a discussion thread on our LinkedIn page, or use the #eldercarechat hashtag to present a question or idea to the group. Encourage your colleagues, friends, or family members to join our bi-weekly discussions or group anytime.