Start Here. Hello and Welcome!!

Please introduce yourself. A quick guide.

Hello! If you’re new to Carer Mentor, welcome! Thank you for being here!

I’m Victoria. I live in the UK, and I’ve been caregiving since 2015. I’m building Carer Mentor: Empathy and Inspiration for caregivers and anyone with a chronic illness or health condition.

I launched the website on my Dad’s birthday in 2020, the first without him. I joined Substack in October 2023 and could finally build the community support network I’d envisaged, with this fifth evolution of Carer Mentor.

I’m continuing to build Carer Mentor through collaborations, anthologies, and articles while caring for my mother.

The Carer Mentor website is a hub of tools, resources & insights, as well as a community support network. A portal of hope ❤️

All the articles and resources are freely available. You’ll soon realise how much time, passion and effort I put into supporting carers. If you’d like to support my work, please consider upgrading your subscription to a monthly or annual subscription. Thank you!

The website is intensely packed with information. This article can help you navigate the wealth of resources and articles.

You can read why I’m publishing Carer Mentor here: Who Started Carer Mentor and Why?

Carer Mentor amplifies the voices of Carers/Caregivers to see the person beyond the caregiving and to learn about diverse caregiving experiences. Topics include bereavement & grief, chronic health conditions, like cancer, autoimmune disease, heart failure, and dementia.

I connect people, lead collaborations, and curate anthologies to build a community support network that raises awareness about caregiving, carers, and the need for collective action and change. This is a space where carers can receive heartfelt empathy and inspiration from others who ‘get it.’

The Carer Mentor community network focuses on carers/caregivers but embraces everyone who is giving or receiving care for a chronic illness, disability, or health condition.

To help you navigate the website:

If you’re on the cusp of caregiving, for example, you may be trying to have conversations about how you can support your parents

1. Explore the Giving and Receiving Care Anthology, in particular the sections:

   1. Are you a carer, on the cusp of caregiving - many people don’t self-identify as a carer despite the creeping amount of support and help they do.

   2. “Starting the discussions and managing someone else’s affairs”

2. Here’s a link to some support organisations that can offer online/live support.

If you’ve been caring for someone for a while

1. You may like these “Caregiving hacks and tips” for your care routine.

2. Perhaps you’re going through a hospital admission or emergency, and need advice about how to advocate for your loved one? Here are some useful articles: ‘Hospitals, admissions, experiences’

3. Maybe you’re stressed, lost and trying to stay afloat - we’ve all been there! Here’s a useful resource: “Managing the mental load. Understanding and enabling yourself’

4. You may resonate with “Caregiving Misperceptions and Realities. What are our socially conditioned assumptions about caregiving, caregivers and respite? What can we do to support one another in our communities?”

If you’ve been caring for a long time, I see you. You’re not alone. Many of us have rollercoastered for a long time.

1. I created the “Letters from a Caregiver” collaboration so each of us can offer our younger selves compassionate wisdom. There’s a wealth of wisdom within this collaboration of letters and from readers’ comments.

2. ComfortZone holds numerous recommendations for music, podcasts, films and TV series, to distract our minds and thoughts and be entertainment on-demand.

For anyone who is experiencing bereavement and grief, I think this anthology will offer resonance and community: Bereavement and Grief Anthology.

If you’re looking for resonance around particular chronic health conditions, you can find other caregivers and care-adjacent publications by exploring these anthologies. Each anthology includes a directory of writers and articles that I’ve read and recommend to our community.

1. The Dementia Anthology

2. The Cancer Anthology

If you’re caring for your parents, or an older family member/friend who has a chronic health issue or an increased need for care support due to declining health, mental capacity, or physical frailty.

• An Anthology: Eldercare / Caring For Parents

If you’re caring for a child with special needs, a disability, a rare disease, autism, cancer or another health condition, meet other caregivers in this community network

• Caregiver’s who are parents “Ask us anything”

If you’re interested in learning how the first rollercoaster of caregiving started for me:

• ‘A Prelude to Caregiving: Love and Torture.’ 2015 hospitalisation was only the beginning.

Please like ‘❤️’ the article to guide others here.

If you know someone who could benefit from these resources, please share Carer Mentor with them

Please share this article/restack in Substack so others can find these resources. Thank you!