A Note to Our Friends on WordPress.com

Last week, we made some technical changes on the back end of Caring with Confidence to add some exciting new features, like our new mobile website. Unfortunately, we just came across one downside: If you follow us through your WordPress account and/or in the WordPress.com Reader, you’re going to stop receiving notifications about our new blog posts. But we can work together to fix that.

We truly respect the family we’ve built here at Caring with Confidence—especially our blogger friends in the WordPress.com community—and we hope that you’ll help us keep that relationship going. To ensure that you hear about all of our latest posts, we invite you to continue following us by entering your email address in the “Email Subscription” form located at the right side of each and every page at http://www.careconfidently.com.

If you already subscribe to us by email, you don’t have to do a thing: you’ll continue to receive email notifications about new posts just as you always have. And if you’re not sure, feel free to check by entering your address in the subscription form. If you receive a message that you’re already subscribed, then you’re all set!

Thank you for helping us keep our community together so that we can continue to support each other in the days, months, and years to come.

Blog Update

Some exciting new features are coming to Caring with Confidence! Notable changes include a mobile site which will automatically load when you access careconfidently.com on your smartphone, as well as additional login options for commenting—like Google and Yahoo!—or you can continue to use your WordPress, Facebook, or Twitter account as you always have.

To enable this improved functionality, we’ll be moving to a new web host beginning today. During the transition, Caring with Confidence may become unavailable for anywhere from 24 to 48 hours. Once the transfer is complete, it may take some additional time to get our comment system back online.

A debatable issue – Is it mandatory for hospice patients to have caregivers at home?

By Patty Ayers

You’ve been through the emotional process necessary to make the decision for hospice care with your loved one. Imagine if when you said “yes” to hospice, the agency you were considering said “no.”

Apparently, 12% of hospices nationwide do say “no” when the hospice patient doesn’t have a caregiver at home 24/7.

After reading the recent NPR article Why Some Hospices Turn Away Patients Without Caregivers At Home, I’m left with mixed feelings of confusion and frustration.  I can say with the utmost certainty that the hospice I work for does not turn away patients who do not have adequate caregivers at home!

Open letter from a hospice caregiver to her body and mind

By Patty Ayers

Dear Body and Mind,

For today I will try my best to not be too hard on you.  I will overlook the load of clothes in the dryer that need to be folded and put away. I will let the dishes in the kitchen sink sit for one more hour while I take a bath, as long as my husband stays sleeping.  Maybe I will stop worrying about everything all at once and try to take one day at a time.  I will try to stop beating myself up for feeling guilty when I wish this to soon be over.  I will also try not to be too hard on myself when I feel guilty about wanting things for myself, even though I know that my husband will not be here in a few months.  I will attempt to pace myself and not try to pack everything in all in one day.

Tips for coping with grief during the holidays

By Leanne Billiau

The holidays can be a busy, overwhelming time for many, but when you are grieving the loss of a loved one, it can be an especially difficult time.  Holidays as well as special days, such as anniversaries and birthdays, can highlight the fatigue and loneliness many grieving people feel.  It is not unusual for feelings of grief to intensify as early as a few weeks prior to a holiday or special day and they can last for up to a few weeks afterward as well.  While this can be disturbing to the griever, it is not a set-back.  It is, in fact, one of the bumps on the journey of grief.