How Caregivers Can Balance Their Needs and Their Loved One's Care

May 21, 2012 - PRLog -- What to Say and Do When Your Loved One Has a Life-Threatening Diagnosis

Each year, around 1,596,670 people are diagnosed with cancer (National Cancer Institute), approximately 5600 people are diagnosed with ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease (ALS Association) and many more are diagnosed with other serious and life-threatening illnesses. Coping with a loved one’s terminal illness brings difficult and daunting tasks for caregivers. Understanding medical treatments and knowing when and how to say vital information may become frightening and overwhelming. Caregivers often feel as though they are “walking on eggshells.”

WALKING ON EGGSHELLS: Caring for a Critically Ill Loved One (New Horizon Press, May 2012) by Amy Sales, MSW, LCSW-C, who has been a clinical social worker focusing on grief counseling at Johns Hopkins Hospital for twenty years, offers and provides comfort and guidance, giving practical tips, proven suggestions and valuable advice on how to navigate complex medical systems and advocate for the emotional and physical needs of a loved one as well as the caregiver from the first day of diagnosis through the loved one’s death.

Giving key information, sensitive advice and accessible techniques, WALKING ON EGGSHELLS is filled with easy to follow examples of how to initiate difficult conversations with a seriously ill loved one and his or her medical team. Focusing on topics such as: Who to Tell What and When to Tell It, Breaking Bad News, Finances, Involving Other Family Members, Preparing for Hospitalization and End of Life and What Does Death Look Like, this indispensable guide offers caregivers much needed comfort, support and timely information. It shows how to manage economic, emotional and daily stressors of caring for a loved one during the upheaval of a critical illness. Additionally, Sales reveals the best strategies and techniques for caregivers to manage their own complex emotions and take care of themselves and the problems generated in their business and personal relationships.

Amy Sales, through her over twenty years of experience with critically ill patients and their caregivers, not only provides the means for confronting delicate questions, but also furnishes the answers and support essential for the overwhelmed caregiver during this emotional and difficult time. This is a must-read for any caregiver.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Amy Sales MSW, LCSW-C, is a clinical social worker at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Maryland, where she has been providing supportive and grief counseling to patients and families for over twenty years. A graduate of Frostburg State University, Maryland, she holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Psychology and a Master’s degree in Social Work-Clinical Track from University of Maryland School of Social Work.


http://newhorizonpressbooks.com/new/walkingoneggshells.php