Caregivers

Those who care for stroke victims at home can benefit from additional support, both from family and medical professionals,

"Caregiving is a major transition in people's lives, associated with lots of anxiety and stress, but making people confident about their own abilities really does help," Kalra said. "We need to change our focus in rehabilitation and start looking at patients and their caregivers as a unit."

Sources: American Heart Association, news release, Sept. 8, 2005, story from HealthDay, a service of ScoutNews, LLC.

http://www.henryford.com/body.cfm?id=39639&action=articleDetail&AEProductID=HealthScoutfeed&AEArticleID=11482

For more on stroke, go to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Support & Information for caregivers

a great little handbook I found online. Caregivers_Handbook_rev5.pdf
To save this and read it later - right click - save target as, and save it to a place where you can find it later.
You have to have acrobat to read this - free download at www.adobe.com

Caregivers -- You are not alone. There are many people out there caring for a loved one right now, feeling some of the same things that you feel, and doing some of the same things that you do everyday.

It's not always easy to get out, but the good news is, you can make new friends and/or join a support group in the comfort of your own home. There are many online sources of support and friendship.

A good website to visit http://members.aol.com/matherbw/SRAWeb/6Caregivers.html
a good article with helpful points - lets the caregiver know that they are not alone - that others have felt the same as them.

Email discussion lists/chats etc

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/empoweringcaregivers/

http://www.care-givers.com/community/chat/chat.htm.

http://www.care-givers.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/Ultimate.cgi?action=intro:.

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/caregiving_support/

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Loving_Caregivers/

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/1_for_Caregivers/

page full of discussion lists for stroke survivors-many include the caregivers
http://groups.yahoo.com/search?query=stroke+survivors

aol chats

go to people - chat - use keyword to find your topic or browse

http://peopleconnection.search.aol.com/pcsearch/chat?query=support&invocationType=pc_chat_items

disAbilities Cafe - Join us at Keyword: Disabilities Community for support and encouragement of others in facing a disability and hopes for overcoming it's challenges.

Caregivers Corner - A loved one with a disease or disability needs support, but the caregivers need support too.