{"id":6365,"date":"2015-08-04T08:49:44","date_gmt":"2015-08-04T13:49:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.senioradvisor.com\/blog\/?p=6365"},"modified":"2017-09-19T11:52:51","modified_gmt":"2017-09-19T16:52:51","slug":"when-caring-takes-courage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/d30braiqprupoq.cloudfront.net\/blog\/2015\/08\/when-caring-takes-courage\/","title":{"rendered":"When Caring Takes Courage"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>When Caring Takes Courage<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-6369\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/img.prod.aplaceformom.com\/main\/uploads\/sa-blog\/2015\/08\/When-Caring-Takes-Courage-350x350.png\" alt=\"When Caring Takes Courage\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/img.prod.aplaceformom.com\/main\/uploads\/sa-blog\/2015\/08\/When-Caring-Takes-Courage-350x350.png 350w, https:\/\/s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/img.prod.aplaceformom.com\/main\/uploads\/sa-blog\/2015\/08\/When-Caring-Takes-Courage-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/img.prod.aplaceformom.com\/main\/uploads\/sa-blog\/2015\/08\/When-Caring-Takes-Courage-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/img.prod.aplaceformom.com\/main\/uploads\/sa-blog\/2015\/08\/When-Caring-Takes-Courage.png 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><\/h1>\n<h2>Book Review: <i>When Caring Takes Courage<\/i> by Mara Botonis<\/h2>\n<h3><i>\u201cThis is a book that is meant to be USED not just READ\u201d<\/i><\/h3>\n<p>No matter how well you know and love someone suffering from Alzheimer\u2019s, knowing how best to care for them doesn\u2019t come naturally. It\u2019s complicated and it\u2019s hard. And it\u2019s a struggle that\u2019s growing in frequency.<\/p>\n<p>The preface of <i>When Caring Takes Courage<\/i> lays out just how big that struggle is:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>5.2 million people in the U.S. have Alzheimer\u2019s<\/li>\n<li>80% of them are cared for at home<\/li>\n<li>There are 15 million caregivers for Alzheimer\u2019s patients in the country<\/li>\n<li>30% of those caregivers suffer from <em>depression<\/em> due to the load it puts on them<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Nobody\u2019s born knowing how to take care of an Alzheimer\u2019s patient, but millions of people have been thrust into the role suddenly \u2013 usually with no training, and a lot of confusion and frustration as a result.<\/p>\n<p>Through her experiences working in senior care and helping take care of her own grandfather with Alzheimer\u2019s disease, Alzheimer&#8217;s advocate Mara Botonis started to figure out some techniques that help make the process of caring for an Alzheimer\u2019s patient more successful and meaningful. With the help of some other experts in the field, she put together a book that offers not only instructions and suggestions, but also interactive worksheets to help readers put her advice to use.<\/p>\n<p>The book is divided into two main sections:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Getting Through Your Day<\/b> \u2013 suggestions and advice for all the everyday tasks and difficulties involved in caring for a loved one with Alzheimer\u2019s.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Creating the Best Possible Day<\/b> \u2013 advice to make sure the daily tasks don\u2019t become all you see, and that you still have meaningful moments with your loved one and help them enjoy at least some of the day.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Keep It Personal<\/h2>\n<p>The book takes care to make sure every piece of advice is actionable and can be personalized to the particular needs of each patient. Alzheimer\u2019s care isn\u2019t one-size-fits-all. While you can find experts out there on the disease, you\u2019re the expert on your loved one. That makes you uniquely qualified to figure out just what type of care they need to not only survive day to day, but continue to find joy in life as well.<\/p>\n<p>It provides you with the tools to turn the moments you might otherwise feel powerless into opportunities to provide your loved one with the best care possible. How do you take the stories you\u2019ve heard a million times and make them into a resource for distracting your loved one from something difficult? How do you make the hard-to-get-through tasks of daily life into something familiar and comfortable that brings back fond memories rather than causing fights? How do you recognize what needs your loved one has and what activities you can (and should) still give them a level of independence in completing?<\/p>\n<p>Nobody can just give you those answers, but the resources in the book will show you how to combine the advice provided with your knowledge to find out what the answers are for you and your loved one. And it will imbue you with ideas for creating quality time with your loved one.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019re not just their caregiver, you\u2019re also someone they\u2019ve known and loved for a long time. You don\u2019t want to lose that part of your relationship as you become so caught up in providing basic care, and you shouldn\u2019t have to.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.com\/1478730536\" target=\"_blank\">Order your copy of\u00a0<em>When Caring Takes Courage<\/em> on Amazon.<\/a><\/strong> To learn more about Mara Botonis, please visit <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/whencaringtakescourage.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">her website<\/a><\/strong> or check out the blog at <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.caregivers.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Caregivers.com<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Caring Takes Courage Book Review: When Caring Takes Courage by Mara Botonis \u201cThis is a book that is meant to be USED not just READ\u201d No matter how well you know and love someone suffering from Alzheimer\u2019s, knowing how best to care for them doesn\u2019t come naturally. It\u2019s complicated and it\u2019s hard. And it\u2019s a struggle that\u2019s growing in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[200,29],"tags":[330,125],"class_list":{"0":"post-6365","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-families-caregivers","7":"category-caregiving","8":"tag-alzheimers-care-2","9":"tag-dementia-care"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>When Caring Takes Courage<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Book review of When Caring Takes Courage by Alzheimer&#039;s advocate, author, and caregiver Mara Botonis. 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