Dimple's Discoveries

My partner and I pull into a trailer park, spot the police cars and park near them, and notice the neighbors gathered outside talking quietly in circles, giving us wary looks. I don my 'Family Crisis Center' badge, grab my binder and we head to the trailer, as red and blue lights revolve intermittently on the outside walls of the trailer and on us. We knock and are let in by a police officer who proceeds to brief us on the situation: the husband started a verbal fight, and escalated to slamming his wife’s head into the fridge by holding a fistful of her hair, choking her son when he tried to intervene, and by threatening to kill her when he called from the jail asking for bail money. I sit on a dirty recliner listening to this woman cry out her frustration, her fears, and her despair. Her children sit nearby, quietly supporting her and occasionally rubbing her arm in an effort to console the inconsolable. Had her daughter not called the police, who called us, we might neve...

I am LDS, and this weekend we were blessed to hear from Pres. Henry B. Eyring of the First Presidency. His talk was fantastic, but he caught my attention especially when he said the word caregiver. :) Here is what he said: “You have observed and felt that blessing, whenever you have cared for someone for even a short time you have felt love for the person you served...Because caregivers are mortal, that love may also be interrupted by feelings of frustration and fatigue. That is another reason why the Lord lets us have the help of others in our service to those in need, that is why the Lord has created societies of caregivers. Even though extended and loving service to people is richly rewarded, you have learned that there are physical, emotional and financial limits to what is possible, the person giving care long enough can become the one who needs care.” Pres. Eyring knows us pretty well. Burn out is VERY common among caregivers. Here are some easy and easy ways to give your...