Monthly Archives: January 2015

We were lying in bed with our coffee, waiting for the house to warm up. This early morning coffee-in-bed time used to be my treasured meditation/get-ready-for-the-day private time, but lately I have been encouraging my love to stay in bed with me and enjoy the early morning light. That way, I can relax because I know what he is doing.

So we were quietly lying there, and I had slipped off into memories of old friendships, when he said, haltingly,

“These….faces….I suppose the doctors did that.”

“Hmm?”

“When I look, I can see myself all right.”

“Mmm. That’s good. Mirrors only show what is there.”

Thirty-five minutes go by, and I slip back in a doze.

“All these faces, did they do that to you too?”

“HUH?”

“When you look in the mirror, what do you see?”

“Me.”

“Oh.”

After about another ten minutes, there ensued a short discussion of age and the inside and outside of mirrors, with me promising, “I will show you when we get up,” as I wondered just where this was going.

We had a nice breakfast, and then the subject came up again, and we trekked off tot he bedroom to make faces at ourselves in the mirror. Actually in both mirrors because he wondered if it would be the same.

It was, and that satisfied, and then it was time for another nap.

However after about 20 minutes, he woke up and started talking about the two people “over there,” and it took me over an hour to realize what he was remembering.

This post is one I have been promising myself for months, so New Year’s Day seems a good time to do it. If you have additions to this list please get in touch and we will try to keep it up-to-date.

Support and information

Comox Valley Seniors’ Peer Counselling runs caregivers’ groups for those struggling with caregiving for dementia patients. They have been an amazing help and support to me here in the Comox Valley.

Alzheimer’s Society of BC provides occasional workshops on dementia, communication, these are invaluable, especially for those starting out. Highly recommended.

There are also a series of caregivers” teleworkshops by phone and/or on your computer. They are useful and they are available online, so you can glean information from past ones.

There are many more workshops and lectures and resources available on the Carering Voice Network, which carries information from organizations across Canada.

Financial aid 

There are a host of grants and tax credits available for people disabled with dementia.

There is a federal Disability Tax Credit — you should register for this as soon as you can, but it does allow for backtax adjustments to when the disability struck.

BC Ferries has a special fare for the disabled and their travel companions.

Via Rail allows the caregiver to travel free if the disabled person needs a companion to manage the trip.

ICBC offers a discount on automobile insurance IF the car is in both your names. To qualify for this, you have to register for the BC Gas Tax Rebates for the disabled.

If the disabled person was a Veteran in the Korean war, you may qualify for some Veterans aid – Health Care or Independent Living  especially if you are low income.

 Home Care

Health care and home care are administered by regional agencies in British Columbia. In the Comox Valley, you need to get your patient onto the Home and Community Care caseload and then the workers will assess you for home care assistance, which will increase as your need does. This leads me to other factors around home care, and I will write about the Community Support for Independent Living (CSIL) program in another post.

This is just a top of the head list, so there may be other programs that people should know about – get in touch and I will add them to the list.