Just quickly did a search and saw the website, Your Aging Parent.com I didn’t check into it very deeply but it’s Catholic, looked safe and may be a starting point.

I’m not sure about any online resources, but I was thinking she might benefit from a support group.  I work in hospice care and our bereavement counselors offer a variety of counseling for the community, including caregiver support groups.  Perhaps she lives near a local hospice or church who offers a support group like that?  They are often free and open to the whole community, not just caregivers of hospice patients.

I am sure there is a real need for it!!  Maybe your Mom could start one??  I hope she has the opportunity to use ‘respite’ services at times so she has some ‘worry free time’.  Or maybe she can start a local group of sorts.

This is a very interesting request.  Thanks for inviting the help of your readership to help this person.  I quickly passed this to my husband in order to invite him to post on our family blog.  I have a page on our blog called, The Chiro Corner.  My husband teaches a class entitled Health and the Older Person, he is also the chiro. on staff at one of our Catholic Elder Care Facilities, and he and I have been very involved in helping our own parents transition into the golden years.  Further, my husband is currently discerning a vocation to the diaconate so that he can help our archdiocese as a physician who deals with elder care issues.  It would be a real resource if he or I could have a few posts on our blog related to this issue.  As a matter of fact, I think I’ll post on that today!:)

Midwife for Souls might fit the bill: http://www.amazon.com/Midwife-Souls-Spiritual-Care-Dying/dp/0819848565/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1308684480&sr=1-1

The subtitle might turn her away, but there are some really lovely lessons to be gleaned from Kathy Kalina’s book. The book is specifically meant for hospice workers, but I know several colleagues and friends who have found it to be a peaceful companion in helping with their own aging parents/grandparents to live their lives fruitfully until the very end. Kalina shares some touching (and sometimes funny!) stories of her own life working in hospice ministry.

As you all know by now (I think), I work with the Daughters of St. Paul, so in the name of full disclosure…

I would check with the diocese she is in.  Ours sponsors a support group for caregivers that meets in our church once a month.  They have professionals come in every month that speak on different topics.

Here in Australia we have a national body called Carers Australia to advocate fo family carers and the local groups organise support groups, counselling etc, there is also Alzheimer Australia that does a lot to help carers and those who have the disease itself as well as the council on the Aging which does a lot to advocate for all older people and also advocates to the government on carer issues. You would have equivalent bodies in the US which does similar work

Some of these websites would help your mum in her task
http://www.trendlinefinancialsolutions.com/elder-care-websites/Als
http://medicine.jrank.org/pages/935/Internet-Resources.html
an index page to a wealth of agencies etc that deal with aging and elder care

Your local diocese might have such a group already but I do think I came across a caregiver resource sponsored by your Bishop Commission that gave the Catholic perspective n caregiving etc. Your mum need to consider long term hostel car for your dad as caregiving for a person whit Alzheimer as the disease takes its toll in very hard on the carer. I know of carers who dies due to the stress long before their caree went and I personally think as a carer you need to look after yourself first or you cannot continue

I am so sorry for your loss and the pain that terminal illness has caused in your family.  You need to know that you are loved so tenderly by our good God who always gives us exactly what we need to bring us home to Him.  He must believe you are very strong to have handled so much in your young life.

I, too have buried my father and am currently caring for my 86 year old mother who has Alzheimers.  I have seven children ages 1-15 and am 42 years old. Every day I fight the temptation to be resentful or angry at the burden I often feel.  Please know that people do understand.  And the great grace of walking through these trials in our life is that they grow us in ways we otherwise would not have grown.  There is great virtue to be mined from these trials.  It is an opportunity that some do not have to mature, to love and to receive grace. I find, for example that I can be much more patient and merciful towards others than I was 10 or 15 years ago. 

And as for those who are still blessed to have vibrant, healthy, involved parents in their lives~they are blessed, too.  Just in a different way.

On Kind Conversations, I started a group for those who are caregivers to loved ones with Alzheimers.  It never really took off.  Maybe now is the time for me to try to boost it up.  My husband is 58 and has been diagnosed with early onset alzheimers.  There are many books, but the best one is by Gail Sheehy, Passages Through Caregiving.  It is not Catholic, but neither is it “anti”.  It gives more resources that are available nationally than anything else I have read.  Also, go to http://www.alzheimers.org -  tremendous resources there.  God Bless

What about the Saint Vincent de Paul Society.
No act of charity is alien to the Society.
They could help your mum with respite care, enabling her to do shopping, or just having a break from the daily grind.

I found your request by searching on Google for “Catholic Caregiver Blog.” How ironic. I haven’t continued looking for one yet. I have been caring for my ninety-two year old Mother for about four years now. She has much pain and much fear especially fear of my not being with her. We do hire Companions, who are angels, so I can go to Mass and the doctor and dentist and too many trips to the pharmacy. I am a guy, I do not mind not going out, but miss friendship with other guys. Mother and I live far from home, family and friends and right now she is not able to travel. Care-giving can be very draining and my skills and training range from books, study and writing to reading not things medical. I have had to set aside a life dedicated to a Catholic Ministry and miss it very much as it was a real vocation. But for now this is what I must do and as the English say “Keep Calm and Carry On.” Over the years I have done much writing and have begun a book for Catholic caregivers (I have degree in Theology with a major in Spirituality) which I am writing really to help myself cope as well as others. It will be prayers, thoughts and encouragements for Catholic caregivers. Writing here brings me back “home” as I wrote the “Mary Our Mother” column for the Catholic Twin Circle way back in the 1990s and many other articles for the “Catholic Twin Circle” when Lori Seyer was the editor and the paper based in California. I am getting old. I would love to hear from other Catholic caregivers, your ideas, thoughts or needs you would like addressed, etc. regarding the book. I hope I do not upset anyone but I believe women are better at care-giving then men. At least so says I. Just as men cannot stand it when a woman cries a man’s response to someone whom they love being in pain is to want to run away. To want to. I hope you find the blog you are looking for or that someone associated with this great blog and publication will begin one. Oh, did you know that November is National Family Caregiver Month. Just learned that today. God bless all of you. Craig   .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)