With a master’s degree with a focus on family caregiver wellness, renowned speaker Mike Collins is not only educated on the subject of caregiving, he lived the experience himself.
Mike’s engaging and witty style complements his serious goal — to help caregivers avoid burnout and take care of themselves.
All of Mike’s presentations are available as keynote speeches, breakout sessions, or virtual seminars/webinars. For details, please contact him at 919-645-8497 or contact@caregivingcraziness.com.
Caregiving Presentations
Caregiving Can Make Life Crazy!™
Let’s be honest, being a family or professional caregiver is a wonderfully supportive, loving and caring activity ... but it can make your life crazy if you let it!
In simple terms, if you check the dictionary, one of the synonyms for crazy is "out of one's mind." Caregiving stresses can do that to us. As humans, living creatures, we seek homeostasis — a sense of balance — and caregiving moves us out of that balance.
Caregiving can cause us to feel, think, act, and experience life in ways we otherwise would not. The stresses can take us out of our minds, out of balance, and out of the life we had before we became caregivers.
Caregiving Can Make Life Crazy! is a lighthearted talk exploring the 5 Hs (the five areas of life impacted by caregiving: Heart, Head, Health, Home, Hands); and offering practical ways to move back into balance and reduce the feeling of crazy.
Key Takeaways
-
It is normal for caregiving to create a life that seems crazy.
-
The craziness that caregiving creates can be calmed.
-
There are practical strategies that can be used in the 5 areas of life caregiving impacts: Heart, Head, Health, Home, Hands (Workplace).
I Didn’t Sign Up For This! The Challenge of Caregiving™
No one likes change, and becoming a caregiver, either part-time or full-time, is certainly an example of constant change.
We embark on our journeys as caregivers with high hopes and expectations; wanting to care for those we love in the best way possible. Then reality hits. The emotional, logistical, and physical challenges are often more than we can handle.
I Didn’t Sign Up For This! The Challenge of Caregiving offers practical solutions to the myriad of changes and challenges we face when caring for our loved ones — and also for ourselves.
​
Key Takeaways
-
Caregiving is a dramatic change in life and, like many changes, it is disruptive.
-
Many of the same strategies used to calm workplace and life change can be adapted to caregiving.
-
Caregivers must be aware that change is impacting those to whom they offer care.
The Perfect Day for Caregivers™
When a caregiver is asked, “What would be your perfect day?” many will respond, “My caree is taken care of and I can relax and have a life!”
However, every caregiver’s experience is different, and what each needs in order to relax and have a life is personal to them.
In The Perfect Day for Caregivers, caregivers will learn about the importance of self-care and how to create more perfect days than they ever thought possible.
Three things any caregiver should seek in the perfect day are:
1. Safety: Making sure their caree is safe.
2. Self-Care: Identifying the stresses / people / challenges impacting them negatively and finding positive ways to deal with them.
3. Responsibility: Completing necessary tasks and meeting their duties as a caregiver.
If you are surprised that responsibility is #3 and self-care is #2 on the list, your reaction is normal—most caregivers put their duties ahead of their own well-being. We will discuss ways to flip the script and lessen the daily stress caregivers experience when duties feel like a burden.
​
Key Takeaways
-
Signals that the caregiver is trying to do too much, negatively impacting their health and ability to look after their caree.
-
Strategies for prioritizing the caregiver’s duties with time management tips.
-
Simple ideas for self-care that can make caregivers healthier, less stressed, and able to have a life!
Fun Is Not a 4-Letter Word: Using Humor to Deal With the Stress of Caregiving™
Finding a lighter heart can be one of the most effective strategies for dealing with the stress of caregiving. While most people would agree that caregiving is often the opposite of fun, medical research is discovering how important fun, humor, and the concept of positivity can be in leading a healthy life.
While entertaining, Fun Is Not a 4-Letter Word is not a string of jokes. The program offers a variety of practical ways family and professional caregivers can use humor and positivity to create a more supportive caregiving environment.
​
Key Takeaways
-
Finding a lighter heart isn’t all about jokes, although they can be important. It can also be done with music, physical activity, visual experiences, and fragrances. The key is to have a plan.
-
Professional caregivers need a plan for a lighter heart, and they need to help those for whom they care have one as well.
-
The research about positivity is conclusive — there are wonderfully healthy impacts to the use of positivity in life. Again, though, the key is to have a plan.
