Caregiver Hints

So, there has been some movement forward on the site additions and redesigns. The first being the new logo, designed by Holmquist Design. It took us a while to nail the look I wanted but I think we finally got it. If it isn’t on the site when you read this than it will be shortly. Other tweaks to the site’s layout should also be coming soon, but at least now there is an identity.

Another addition is that Caregiver Hints is now on Twitter. Look it up at http://www.twitter.com/caregiverhints. I am following a number of great contributors discussing health and caregiver issues whose content I will “retweet” when I find some good tidbits of advice or information. You can also preview the new logo there.

The biggest hurdle to keeping up the site is that I have to maintain it and contribute during my spare time, of which there is very little. I am also blogging for a number of web sites besides my regular day job, so most of the work has been behind the scenes. I literally have stacks of notes of possible articles, but no time to get them on the site.

Since I was to ensure that the site remains a valuable resource, I’m putting out the call for contributions. If there is anyone out there who would like to write articles for the site, or maybe just pass on something valuable you have learned about in your caregiving experience, I’d love for you to write in and I’ll post it on the site. Whether it’s a tool that helps you with caregiving, organizing your time, or maybe even a product or service you found useful, I’d like to hear about it. I will give you full credit as the contributer and you will be helping me and anyone else looking for caregiving hints. Personally, I’d love to hear some tips and experience from others in the caregiving community. I envisioned the site as a way to share what I had leaned on my own in the hopes it would help other caregivers avoid some of the pitfalls I had to deal with. I think it would be ideal if other tips and stories came from non-professional writers and caregivers. Sharing and building a community is very important since the act of being a caregiver, especially for a spouse or parent, can be a very isolating world.

If anyone is interested, please email me using the contact form and we can discuss your story submission.

Take care of yourself, as well as others.™

I’ve just installed the article commenting commenting system from DISQUS!

What it means for visitors, hopefully, is that it will provide a better community experience, and an easier way to post questions and follow responses. Another cool thing is that if you visit other blogs using DISQUS, you can use the same user profile.

Please try it out and let me know what you think!

I hope to be adding a new feature to the web site…podcasts! Since I am an avid podcast listener myself, it occurred to me that having the option to listen to articles in the car, or on the bus on the way to work might be really useful for busy people. If you are a caregiver, you are definitely busy. Personally, podcasts are the only way I can keep up with news.

So, as soon as I can work out some of the bugs (I’ve never done a podcast before), look for a link on the site to start downloading to your iPod.

Thanks to the folks over at Content.Robot, you can now access this site easily on an iPhone! If you come to the site using Safari on the iPhone or iPod Touch, the content will be reformatted to fit nicely on the screen with a very elegant and simplified theme. I almost wish the “regular” site looked like that. If you’re browsing the site with an iPhone, leave a comment or drop me a note to let me know how you like it. One of my objectives of the site is to help busy people (and who isn’t busy) get quick, useful information to help them with the job of caring for others. Hopefully this addition will make it easier for some folks by allowing them to use that time sitting on the bus, or waiting in the doctor’s office more productively.

During the site update I added some new bits and pieces. Probably the most noticeable is the Recommended Reading section in the sidebar. From time to time I will be rotating some reading selections I’ve found useful. The best part is that if you are interested, you can click right on the book image and it will take you to Amazon and show you that book selection. If you use my links, I will get a small cut from Amazon that will help me defer the costs of maintaining the web site. Everybody wins! I hope you will find this useful.