Transition Planning for Your Child with Special Needs: Ten Top Tips
I’m sitting in Langley, British Columbia, and when I look out my hotel window, I see the skyline punctuated with the tips of pine trees. Mountains are snow-capped in the…
Donna Thomson
Ethics of Fairness in Policymaking for Caregivers: Summing Up
When it comes to our aging population in Canada, we have a lot of reasons to be worried. Many people still assume that the government will provide care and if…
Fairness in Policymaking for Family Caregivers: Part 3
This is Part 3 of my mini-series on fairness in policymaking for our families. It’s taken from my book, The Four Walls of My Freedom. I am a Canadian who…
Fairness in Policymaking for Family Caregivers – Part 2
Continued…. this is Part 2 of a reflection on fairness in policymaking for family caregivers. So, what are the roles of families and governments in supporting society’s most vulnerable citizens?…
The Ethics of Fairness for Family Caregiver Policy, Part 1
With the United States election dominating the news, I thought it was a good time to talk about fairness in policy-making for family caregivers. In my book, The Four Walls…
Caregiving for Step-Children
Parenting healthy children is challenging, so imagine parenting a step-child with disabilities. Blended families are nearly the norm nowadays and it follows that a contemporary phenomenon will be shell shocked…
Constipation, a Kidnapped Diplomat and an Enema
My husband is a retired diplomat. A colleague from the service, Bob Fowler, had the terrible misfortune of being kidnapped in Mali and wrote a book about his awful experience…
Constipation Blues
“Push a Poo, push a poo, push a poo poo poo!” That’s what I used to sing to Nick when he was little. Recently, I sang the little ditty again…
The Wisdom of Auntie Nellie – Stretch for Health
When our son Nicholas was diagnosed with severe cerebral palsy over 23 years ago, he was four months old and I was very frightened. I was frightened, but also determined…
Social Connectedness: An Op-Ed
One thing I know about caregiving is that it cannot be done well by one person alone. We need friends, family… we need support. And that support is really only…
Care is Care. Let’s Stand Together for Political and Social Change
I remember a long time ago, sitting in a room full of disability activists who were much older and more experienced than me. One man, Gary McPherson, sat in his…
How Artists Talk About Caregiving
I used to be an actor… and a director. In fact, when Nicholas was born, I was working for a horse-drawn theatre called The Caravan Stage Company (the Caravan has…
Fathers, Sons and the In-Between Spaces of Grief
I tell our family story to anyone who will listen. I hope that our story will shift readers’ embedded thoughts and ideas about what it means to be different and…
Using Sight and Smell to Sense Change
Ask a new mother how she knows the meaning of her baby’s different cries. Ask about today’s diaper rash compared to how it looked yesterday. All that detailed information is…
The Caregivers’ Six Senses: Today is TOUCH
This is the first in a mini-series about how the senses are used in caregiving. Today’s subject: TOUCH One of the benefits of caregiving, I believe, is that we touch…
Caring for the Cancer Patient – Today: Mesothelioma
Recently, I received an email requesting a guest blogger spot on the subject of caregiving for people suffering from Mesothelioma, a type of cancer often caused by exposure to asbestos.…
An Idea for Justice for you and you and you….
Recently, I have been thinking a lot about the barriers to people with disability or infirmity to pursue their aspirations and achieve their potential with the support they need and…
Is Caregiving Women’s Work?
Last week I had the pleasure and the privilege of speaking with a group of caregiver activists in a conference call hosted by WEGO Health, a terrific online information tool…
"God’s Little Joke" – A Tragic Story
I guess I am used to witnessing pain, so I do not cry easily. But this morning I read an article from “Psychology Today” that made me weep silently, my…