Online Video Resources for Family Caregivers
Caregiver Education Online Can Help Families Caring for Seniors
Jan 18, 2009
Here are some short educational videos that can be very useful to busy people caring for elderly parents or spouse.
Useful Online Video Caregiving Resources
The Videocaregiving website bills itself as an "education center for family caregivers." The site has a variety of very short videos family caregivers can watch online without paying or registering. Topics include: stroke, how to talk to Alzheimer's patients, activities for Alzheimer's patients, stopping impaired patients from driving, advance directives, lifting the patient and more.
Some of the videos are concrete how-to's and some are more generally informative. Many let the viewer hear from other family caregivers in similar situations. The site is very professional and, for family caregivers, it is worthy of a bookmark.
YouTube Has Videos Helpful to Family Caregivers
Those caring for elderly parents or spouse wear many hats; one of those hats is nurse. Caregivers usually do not have the luxury of time to enroll in a Certified Nurse's Assistant (CNA) class. Brief online videos can help.
A multitude of useful caregiver videos can be found on YouTube. Just go to YouTube.com and search for any topic, such as "how to make a bed with patient in it" or "how to give patient a bath in bed." Another useful search term to use on YouTube is "CNA skills."
Caregiver Website Posts Video Links
This caregiver website page posts links to useful caregiver videos on how to do things like wash a patient's hair in bed, how to take blood pressure, how to move and lift a patient. (Scroll down towards the bottom of the linked page to see the video links.)
Using Google Alerts to Find Caregiving Resources Online
Family caregivers can receive an email from Google every time new content regarding caregiving is posted on the web. The user can ask to be alerted to any keyword phrase of interest, such as dementia treatment, caregiver support, caring for family, caregiver education, or any phrase at all.
To do this:
- Go to Google.com/alerts.
- Enter the phrase you wish to be alerted to. Be sure to put the phrase in quotes, i.e. "caregiver support".
- Choose whether you wish to be alerted to videos, blogs, news sites, web pages or all of the above (comprehensive).
- Choose how frequently you would like to be alerted.
- Provide an email address.
To edit alerts the caregiver must have a Google account. The account is free and there is an option on the page to sign up. Signing up is easy. Once the alert is set up, the caregiver will receive an email with links to the material any time material is posted to the web containing the keyword phrase. If the information being sent is not useful, users can modify the alert to zero in on the information of interest.
Caregiving is time consuming and so is combing the web for help. Knowing where and how to look can bring the most helpful resources right to the caregiver's desktop.
More Caregiver Resources
There are other helpful articles for caregivers here in Suite101's caregiver support section. There are how-to articles regarding patient care, and articles related to stress management, caregiver burnout, legal issues, memory loss, end of life, nursing homes, dementia, books and resources for caregivers.
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