Caregiving
May 27, 2022
“We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness.” This is what Ashley and Wynonna Judd said publicly in response to their mother’s recent death. Much of the world was surprised. Much of it wasn’t. Naomi Judd was a brave and outspoken advocate for mental health […]
May 4, 2022
Spring is here and I hope we will all take time to think about people in our lives whom we love and how we express our feelings for them. I share some thoughts about unconditional love which were triggered by my presence at a birthday celebration online. As I explore […]
March 4, 2022
As many of you know, I write the Sanity Savers newsletters with a hope of being helpful. Some of the articles are more personal than others and I appreciate the feedback you offer. It means a lot. I had written and was ready to post a different article this month. […]
January 7, 2022
We enter a new year, often filled with hope and resolutions. At this time, we also remain in a pandemic that has lasted longer than most, if not all, of us could ever have imagined. Lives have been upended, and many of us have lost loved ones. When we lose […]
September 1, 2021
Disconnecting From Technology One Day Each Week Unplugging one day a week. Our day of rest. With technology available at our fingertips 24 hours a day, the boundaries have become blurred in our lives between work and rest. This can lead us to feel distracted all the time, […]
August 2, 2021
Mental Health and the Olympics “Suck It Up” is an unkind, unempathetic, and wrong message to send when it comes to mental health. With the spotlight shining so brightly on Simone Biles this week, the world is becoming ever more aware of the incredible mental and emotional stress […]
July 5, 2021
As some of you know, my father, Jerry Atkins, at the age of 74, died after living with Alzheimer’s Disease for 13 years. A passionate music lover with an extensive record collection, he sang, danced, played the drums, and always had a song in his heart and on his lips. […]
March 10, 2021
We have long realized that patients with long-term illnesses such as cancer or Alzheimer’s Disease go through phases of inevitable decline that require the medical team to continually adapt treatment to meet their changing needs. Through my work with caregivers who oversee the daily care of family members with such […]
March 3, 2020
When everything is going our way, life is great. Things fall into place and we can see possibilities and opportunities easily. We can become attached to these feelings and never want them to end. We may expect that they will not end. Then something happens and our world changes, and […]
February 4, 2020
For most of my professional career I have tried to help people come to terms with loss. The loss of the child they had hoped for and the adaptation to the one they had; the loss of a job that they wanted or had; the loss of a relationship, the […]