Beyond Caregiving

Book excerpt: Why is this book important to read? Beyond Caregiving contains a plethora of information that the reader will find very useful in coping with the challenges of providing care. In a nutshell, the book is about the deeper understanding of the role of a caregiver, learning creative ways to secure much need resources and services, maneuvering through the complex health care system, and most of all learning to enjoy and see the positivity in everything we do despite what life may bring to our fruitful undertaking. As an educator and advocate for the disabled and the developmentally challenged for 14 years; and as a Social Services Director at several skilled nursing facilities for 5-years, Romwell witnessed most of the challenges that caregivers' and their families face up in dealing with the task. His goal in writing the book is to help alleviate caregiver stress in navigating through the difficult emotional, psychological, and financial challenges of caregiving. The book shall serve as a caregiver's guide in maneuvering through the complex healthcare delivery system and present creative ideas in procuring much-needed support from private entities, state and federally funded programs, and services available in the community. The book also illustrates steps, and possible solutions in the appeals process that a caregiver may apply in the event of an unjust or unfair denial of rights of a developmentally challenged adult or a child. The goal is to mitigate the out-of-pocket costs of an already financially burdened population. Beyond Caregiving likewise presents real-life cases and situations experienced by actual patients that benefitted from the author's services during his career as a social worker-case manager. In reading the book, the reader will understand why it is difficult to provide care to different people, particularly patients with unique developmental challenges. The reader will also discover the correlation between aggressive behavior and medical disability, which explains why people act the way they do, sometimes even without reason. And last but not the least, the book provides useful resources for the reader and their families in dealing with the difficult challenges of providing continuum of care brought by the lack of availability of community resources, and the defective post-hospitalization services.