Over the years, our family has relied on the help, friendship and dedication of personal support workers, both for our son Nicholas and more recently for my mother who needs assistance due to her age. These support workers worked part-time for low wages. More often than not, they were women
Continue readingTag: Eva Kittay
THE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: International Women’s Day 2015 – I Celebrate Caregivers!
March 8th is International Women’s Day, so I can’t think of a better time to celebrate the contributions of women who give care to their families and friends. More women than men are caregivers: an estimated 66% of caregivers are female. One-third (34%) take care of two or more people,
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: The Worth of Vulnerability
Marilynne Robinson is a great American novelist and essayist who mines contemporary society for meaning. Her themes are expansive and biblical in their proportions. This what she said in a New York Times Magazine interview recently: “People,” Robinson said, pausing before she defined that familiar word in original terms: “Brilliant creatures, who
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: An Interview With Me About Caregiving and Writing About Family Life & Ideas
Recently, I gave an interview to Kris Bone, a writer with the Puritan Magazine (a Canadian literary journal). Here’s his article about my book, “The Four Walls of My Freedom: Lessons I’ve Learned From a Life of Caregiving” (House of Anansi Press, 2014). My book is available everywhere in Canada
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: Standing Up for Love When We Feel Surrounded By Hate
Do you ever have days when you feel like you are the only person who cares about kindness? When you begin to think that maybe EVERYONE else is thinking always and only about their own interests…about their own money, their own home, their own job…. Yesterday was such a day
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: What’s a Fair Deal for Family Caregivers and Their Loved Ones?
How should family caregivers be supported in society? What is the role of government? What is the role of the private sector? What claim does a person needing care have on his family or on the taxpayer? What is the human worth of people whose needs are high, yet are
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM - A Blog by Donna Thomson: Could Gilberto Powell Have Been Your Son, Mister President?
Nearly every day I see stories in the media of people with disabilities being abused. (For example, the case of Ethan Saylor, the young man with Down Syndrome who was killed by police when he went to the cinema). But I normally don’t blog about them because I am not
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM - A Blog by Donna Thomson: The Idea of Personal Choice – A Tough One for Caregivers
The idea of personal choice is not something that we think of every day, but it’s a little like fresh air – try living without it. As the needs of a loved one escalate, opportunities for caregivers to exercise personal choice diminish. Of course, the effects of disability or aging
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