In this caregiver spotlight episode, meet Christina Britton Conroy. Music became Christina’s sanity while caring for her father and now her husband with Parkinson’s. In this episode, we talk mindset, humor, compassionate lies, writing, and how music is really therapy.
Listen to the show: Caregiver Spotlight – Christina Britton Conroy
Words of Encouragement
Each episode starts off with a few words of inspiration or motivation that is pulled from the Happy Healthy Caregiver Jar.
Links & Resources Mentioned
- Christina described herself as as an ‘unwillingly’ caregiver at age 27 to care for her 80 year old father after her mom passed away.
- After her dad died, she got her masters in Music Therapy and specialized in Gerontology and started working as a professional in long term care centers.
- Earlier this year, Christina had to select a nursing home for her husband Larry who has Parkinson’s and dementia.
- Christina’s book “How to Have Fun with Your Aging Parents” which explains how to bring passion and joy back in to the lives of their elderly parents who may believe their life is over. One of the chapters is about telling ‘compassionate lies’. There is also a lot of great information in here about blending your interests with your care recipient’s interests.
- Christina also writes historical novels and is a member of the Historical Novel Society.
- Online support groups are out there – find the group that works for you. Some are disease specific and some are for all family caregivers. Feel free to join our Happy Healthy Caregiver Facebook Community.
- Christina and I both agree that music is a mood buster! I share in this podcast about the power of music.
- Christina’s ‘Happiness 911’ song that she plays to turn her mood around is Simon & Garfunkel’s “Feeling Groovy”. I dare you to listen and not smile:
- Information about Power of Attorney and Do Not Resuscitate (DNR).
- Great information about having end of life conversations.
- Christina’s regrets: 5 years ago she wishes she would have spoken to an elder law attorney to take steps to start to get things in order for Medicaid. She also wishes she had long term care insurance (he is 20 years older than she is).
- One item on Christina’s bucket wish list is to visit India.
- Visit Christina’s website for more information about her books, services, and social media links.
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Favorite moments & quotes from the episode
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