Friday Five for Family Caregivers

The Friday Five is our weekly roundup of links to smart articles and helpful resources across the Web.

1. The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization proclaimed November National Hospice and Palliative Care Month. Read their proclamation on the NHPCO website.

2. It's not easy being a family caregiver, especially as your loved one nears the final phase. This article, "Caring for Someone Who is Dying" from the Hospice Foundation of America, can offer some information and guidelines that can help you during this difficult time.

3. You know your parents can no longer live on their own. They need more attention, and your house is too small, and you work full-time, and you'd feel better knowing they're under professional eyes. But where do you start? The Assisted Living Federation of America can help give you a listing of facilities in your area and the Senior Living Options section will help you understand what you're looking for, and the questions to ask when choosing a community.

4. Do you know a video-savvy teen, a filmmaker to be, who has also been affected by Alzheimer's? The Alzheimer's Foundation of America has made it a goal to bring more attention to the fact that as more people suffer from Alzheimer's, the effects reach farther out into families, and ultimately, more and more teens. The AFA Teens division is launching their second video competition and inviting teenagers to submit video submissions about a moment in relation to Alzheimer's disease. Learn more about the competition at the AFA Teens website.

5. This is a wonderful written op-ed piece from the Helena Independent Record this week explaining why accepting hospice care does not mean giving up. This is a common reaction from most people; we can't help it. We're a nation that fears death, but being open to hospice care can give us the space to look at death in a whole new way, as a final phase, as a journey, as a peaceful process.