Webinar: Join Us to Learn a Life-Changing Approach to Wellbeing

 

There is so much talk about self-care in the online caregiving discourse that it's just plain exhausting. What we need is a simple and realistic way to think about how to meet our own physical and emotional needs while we give care to another. I found a great one and it's called The F-Words in Childhood Disability (but it's not just for children with disabilities, I've used it for myself and it truly changed my life). 

I'm excited to tell you about an upcoming F-Words webinar! Dr. Peter Rosenbaum will join me in conversation about how this approach came to be and how it has helped tens of thousands of families around the world. The webinar is on January 15 at noon EST and you can register for the link HERE. 

I first learned about the F-Words when I heard about this article that my friends Dr. Peter Rosenbaum and Dr. Jan Willem Gorter wrote for a medical journal. The F-Words are: FUNCTION, FAMILY, FITNESS, FUN, FRIENDS AND FUTURE. The F-words build upon the World Health Organization's (WHO's) International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) framework. The ICF framework shows how body structure and function, activity, participation and environmental factors and personal factors are interrelated and equally influence our health and functioning. 

These domains are key ingredients for the health of any child growing up with a disability but I began to think about how we could use this framework for everyone in the family, especially the caregiver! 

Here is the simple F-Words template. You can download and fill it in using images or words (images are helpful is the person you care for has cognitive or visual challenges). Everyone in the family can fill in a personal template and then share the results to see who can help whom reach their goals: 

Think about your own personal goals in each of the F-Word domains. Given the givens, what can you realistically hope for in your own Function, Family, Fitness, Fun, Friends and Future? What are activities or goals that you could add into these domains? Use this template to think about balance in your caregiving life and share it with your loved one, your extended family, friends and even the medical professionals who support you. 

Ask yourself how your family members' F-Word goals mesh with your own. Can you negotiate or use these goals to help create a schedule of activities that reflect your best effort at balance? 

For more information on the F-Words, check out the range of free tools and resources on the CanChild website HERE. And join us for the webinar if you can to learn more about how the F-Words changes caregivers' lives (including my own) for the better!