Five Podcasts for Caregivers

iPods, Mozaics, Sansa Fuzes, Oh My! Whatever mp3 player you use, did you know you can use it as a “virtual library” of audio books and podcasts to help you with your caregiving duties? Thanks to iTunes, it’s relatively easy to subscribe to a variety of podcasts to learn about such topics as dementia, caregiver stress, Parkinson’s Disease, help for the caregiver, and more.

I love to listen to my Nano iPod as I drive to and from my various Sandwich Generation caregiving requirements, stand in long lines, take walks to deal with caregiver stress and even, occasionally, fly cross country. I was thrilled to discover, recently, that my car has a connector jack that gives me one of those great “car mp3 players.” This allows me to share songs and stories from my iPod through the sound system.

I can only hand-carry a couple of books at a time with me, but with my iPod, I can bring the equivalent of 50+ books as well as a smaller hand-picked selection of all my favorite praise and worship songs. And I only have a 4gb iPod! Think what you could do with 80 or more gb like some mp3 players have.

Even before I had an mp3 player, I enjoyed audio books and podcasts by using iTunes on my computer. I downloaded what I wanted onto my computer. Then I either listened to the computer or “burned” a CD of the materials I was interested in and took them with me using a CD player. The mp3 player is a lot easier, though, and over time helps pay its way by not requiring me to keep buying CDs. Not only that, since most of the podcasts I listen to are free, I’ve found it to be a great money saver there as well!

I tend to go whole hog on what I read. In other words, I will go through a period of reading all Christian fiction, all real estate, all science fiction, or all computer geek books. I do the same with the podcasts I listen to. Right now, I am primarily listening to blogging podcasts and enjoying them tremendously. But I also have a list of five interesting podcasts about caregiving that I thought you might enjoy:

• Caregiving – Denise Brown
• Coping With Caregiving – Jacqueline Marcell
• Parkinson’s Disease – PD Talk Live

The following are more of a technical discourse as opposed to the above podcasts which use more of a casual chatting format:

• The Lancet - This covers neurology issues such as Parkinson’s Disease, Alzheimer’s Disease, stroke, etc.
• MUSC Health Podcast Library – a wide variety of elderly ailments,  including Alzheimer’s Disease, Geriatrics, and more are dealt with.

Tagged as: Alzheimer's Disease, car mp3 players, caregiving, eldercare podcasts, elderly care, Nono iPod, Parkinson's Disease, senior home care, stroke