Caregiver’s Path to Compassionate Decision Making

(If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my blog posts or request my Free E-Course. Thanks for visiting!)

“The Caregiver’s Path to Compassionate Decision Making: Making Choices For Those Who Can’t” should be in the hands of every family and healthcare professional.  Viki Kind, the author, has taken her years of professional/personal experience and provides a wonderful systematic approach for making medical decision with and for a loved one.

Unfortunately, we are often called upon to respond immediately to a medical crisis.  A wrong decision at that split second can affect quality of life for the rest of the person’s life.  This book gives you the strategies and tools for determining how you should make a critical decision, how much you should involve your loved one in the decision, and how to partner and communicate with healthcare professionals.  Viki walks us through each strategy and tool, and then pulls them all together, providing a step by step guide (and flowchart) for any situation you may encounter.

Throughout the book, Viki illustrates each concept, strategy and tool by sharing her own personal story and stories of those families she has helped along the way.  As you read this, you can’t help but think back to some of your own experiences and feel assured that in the future, you will be confident and much more prepared to act in the best interest of your loved one.

There are 2 chapters in this book that literally took my breath away.  The first was, “When Our Hearts Get in the Way”.  In the midst of providing practical advice, Viki takes a step back and talks about “when our heart gets in the way of good decision making.”  Strong emotions do affect judgment!  You’ll learn how to recognize and deal with your emotions in a positive way.  It will help you get off the treadmill of tasks and pay attention to the inner needs of you and your loved one.

Finally, the last chapter, ” Making the Most Difficult Decisions at the End of Life”, could be a book unto itself.  Viki’s hospice experience and personal philosophy really shine through.  She gently walks us through how to talk with our loved one about their wishes, and how to deal with wishes that run counter to our own personal philosophy and/or that of the physician.  This is a primer on end-of- life options and how to approach death. When I finished reading that chapter, I felt truly enlightened.

I highly recommend this book to all families and health/eldercare professionals.  It’s full of practical, hands-on information presented in a way that honors and respects the uniqueness of individuals and families.  This is a book that will serve you well for years to come!

To reach Viki, her book and her Kind Ethics website, click here.

Tagged as: Aging Parent, Alzheimer's, Caregiver, Caregiving, Dementia, Eldercare, Elderly, Transition