Description
A compassionate guide to navigating the complex, emotional and challenging world of care
When someone you love becomes seriously ill, disabled, or starts to decline with age, knowing what to do can feel overwhelming. Next of Kin is a heartfelt and practical guide to navigating the complicated world of care. Written by journalist and health communicator Casey Beros, this book offers clear, empathetic advice for tackling the medical, legal, physical and emotional challenges of caring for someone close to you. When it can be hard to see a clear way forward, Beros delivers what every carer needs: guidance, reassurance, and real-life tools.
She shares everything she learned on her journey as her father's carer, as well as insights from other patients and carers she met along the way and learnings from over two decades of interviewing medical professionals. Beros unpacks advice from world-leading experts in care, loss and grief, reflecting on the best way forward in one of the most challenging times any of us will ever face. Next of Kin shines a bright light into a dark experience and gives readers a hand to hold along the way.
Inside, you'll find:
- Tools to navigate the medical system and advocate on behalf of yourself or someone you care for
- Techniques for talking about uncomfortable topics, like illness, death and loss, with children and adults
- Advice to navigate loss, grief and the transformation of relationships affected by illness and death
- Strategies for much-needed self-care when you're devoted to caring for someone else
- Key legal considerations, including important details about wills, powers of attorney, guardianship and what it means to be the executor of an estate
Whether you're currently caring for someone, or you are expecting to in the future, Next of Kin is the practical, compassionate resource you need. This essential guide will show you how to move forward with kindness and strength – for others and yourself – and will inspire you to step up to the plate when someone you love needs you.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Ducks on Drugs xiii
Part I Medical Care 1
1 Pull the rug 3
2 This is going to hurt 17
3 Getting better, getting worse 31
4 In the pocket 49
Part II Physical Care 67
5 Go team 69
6 Harriet Potter, the stone and the buoy 81
7 Spoongate 89
8 Deadlines 99
Part III Legal and Financial Care 107
9 Hats 109
10 Paper cuts 117
11 Dollars and sensitivity 127
Part IV Emotional Care 141
12 Homecoming 143
13 Low tide 159
14 Flowers 179
15 The After Party 197
16 Places 205
Epilogue: Air 213
Acknowledgements 221
Resources 227
References 239
