Live Well: Caring for Caregivers

This month’s Live Well theme is “Caring for Caregivers”—a topic of special relevance for midwives and others in the professional care community.

While many people from all walks of life find themselves overwhelmed by caregiving responsibilities – particularly if they are in the “sandwich generation,” caring for their aging parents as well as their own children – people who work in professions that provide care to others can find the load even more difficult to carry – they’re in a triple decker sandwich.

Those who worked on the frontlines during the pandemic experienced the most extreme version of this type of overwhelm.

Some resources to help caregivers – professional and otherwise – care for themselves:

• Trauma Stewardship: An Everyday Guide to Caring for Self while Caring for Others
  This book provides tools and resources for people dealing with secondary trauma, “written by someone who has walked the path and knows firsthand what trauma brings and demands of those who walk that path.”
• 52 Weeks to a Sweeter Life
  Just released this spring by Toronto writer, activist, and psychotherapist Farzana Doctor, this guide is “written for helpers—the caregivers, activists, community leaders, mental health and medical professionals who are the first to help others, but the last to seek help themselves.”
• Your MFAP
  Whether you’re looking for articles on wellness, one-on-one counselling, or help finding childcare or elder care, take advantage of all your MFAP has to offer!