Guide for Caregivers

In one out of three American households, someone is a caregiver: women and men who give of body, mind and soul to care for the well being of others. These millions need help, more than financial and medical assistance. They need daily, practical help in reviving their spirits and avoiding burnout.

Who are these caregivers? They are folks who have lived this tough life and felt the agonies and the boredom, yet they have extended compassion with a gentle word or a tender touch. As caregivers, they know anger, frustration, joy, laughter, purpose, mortality and immortality.

This book is intended to restore a new and right spirit in you. Our goal is to restore balance to your spirit—to replace sadness with laughter, fear with hope, exhaustion with vitality, mourning with gratitude, emptiness with joy and burnout with a rekindled passion.

Guide for Caregivers is drawn from the wisdom of many caregivers and we have taken their advice: these are short, easy-to-read sections packed with wisdom and practical help! This book is designed to let readers jump in almost anywhere and explore at their own pace.

Considering the millions of Americans who are caregivers, this book also is great for small-group study. In fact, clergy who have started using the book and inviting caregivers to participate more actively in their congregations find that the process activates former parishioners and draws new ones.

Guide for Caregivers Reviews

“Benjamin Pratt has written a practical book for persons who are caregivers of family members or other loved ones. Each chapter begins with an introduction to a new topic. He then includes wisdom of the community, using quotations from caregivers and others. Each chapter ends with suggestions to the reader for ways to begin working with the issue in their personal lives. It makes for lively, interesting reading that does not require too much energy or attention from the tired caregiver. A United Methodist minister, Benjamin offers no pious platitudes, no simple exhortations to buck up, but rather gently leads the reader to explore options for recovering a healthy spirit. This book will be invaluable to the caring practitioner. Even better, purchasing a box of them to give as appropriate to caregivers in your congregation, would be one of the best possible gifts to the ongoing health of the faith community.”

Bill Ratliff, PhD, Retired Professor of Pastoral Care and Counseling, Earlham School of Religion

“I find myself reaching for the book and turning to dog-eared pages to give myself a time out and to gather strength from the comments that others have so willingly shared. Reading the chapter on Burnout and Accidie was the first time that I felt someone truly understood me and the ‘Guide for Caregivers’ cocktail of feelings that seem to always be swirling inside of me.”

S.J. Levy (Dunn Loring, Virginia, United States) (on Amazon.com, 5 stars)

 

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