I want to share an early morning email interaction that
our partner and editorial director Nancy Schonwalter,
recently had with a family caregiver:
Dear Caregiver
I was
desperate to talk with someone who could understand. I
googled "care giver support" and your website came up.
I think you should know that I did not get any help from
your website as it requires some sort of login…
AM
Dear AM
Our website does not require any log in except for the
discussion forum where you can read all the comments w/o
logging in but need to create a log in order to post a
comment. If you could be more specific in what you
were trying to do or what kind of support you are looking
for, we would be happy to try to help you.
Nancy
Schonwalter
Dear Nancy
Thank you so much for your kind
response. Actually, that's what I was probably "looking for"
- just a measure of human contact and kindness. I was having
a "moment" (husband has Parkinson's; father is blind;
mother, well, mentally ill and I'm mostly responsible for
all of them). I googled 'caregiver support' and your website
was number one. From your home page I couldn't quickly find
any link that said to me "Here Is Where You Can Find Someone
Who Might Understand and Listen."
Now that
I'm calmer, I think your
Forum is closest to what I needed
in my desperate moment...
I rarely have
such an overwhelming sense of desperation as I was
experiencing last evening. I think I would have benefited
greatly from your website had I been able to think clearly
enough to click on the 'Forum' tab. Now that I know you're
here I will peruse the website (which looks like it will be
very helpful to me) and I look forward to making some
connections to help me through the rough waters. Next time,
I'll have a place to go when I need it.
So
thanks for listening and thanks for your website.
AMThank you AM, you remind
us all that sometimes the most important answers we need as
caregivers are in simply knowing that people are willing to
listen to our questions.
Now
if I can find an internet button that will hold the words:
"Here Is Where You Can Find Someone Who Might
Understand and Listen."
Gary Barg
Editor-in-Chief
gary@caregiver.com
