The Spiritual Journey of Family Caregiving

Book excerpt: For five years, ending in 2005, Sheryl Karas worked as a Family Caregiving Consultant at the Alzheimer's Association and Del Mar Caregiver Resource Center helping families taking care of loved ones with incurable progressive memory loss and dementia. Trying to find services needed to provide basic care is what brought people in to see her first, but as the caregivers became more ensconced in their caregiving roles inevitably emotional and spiritual issues would become their primary concerns. Sheryl's role shifted to providing a combination of practical and spiritual care. During this period she wrote a caregiver newsletter every month and this book is the result.The author uses a very open, nondogmatic spiritual frame, appropriate for people of all religious backgrounds or none at all. Inspirational, comforting, and informative--highly recommended for anyone involved with long term care.