After years of writing for other people, professionally and academically, I am mining my somewhat eccentric life for material that I think the world might want -- maybe even need -- to know. That includes growing up a long time ago in rural Alberta, doing community development and more mainstream social work in several settings and locations across Canada, raising a family with Michael Fay who organized for writers in the early days of Access Alliance, working with and in parallel with him in both the social justice and arts worlds, and now inhabiting my solo life in Haliburton County, Ontario cottage country, a verdant laboratory for Making Things Happen. Writing fiction, memoir, a biweekly opinion column (available on my website), magazine articles, essays, research -- whatever the occasion warrants and opportunity offers. My current social issue is affordable housing with a particular lens on rural homelessness.
as negotiated
The gap i'd like to address is taking control of the care-giving function early in the dementia process and preparing for inadequate or inappropriate institutional support and assistance. I would market myself as a 'survivor' of spousal care-giving, not an expert on dementia.
How precisely that would look would be tailored to the host situation and intent.
it may be particularly pertinent in small rural communities where official resources are rare. It will in any case trend to assessing personal social networks to develop and sustain a tailored network of support and assistance. Might be adaptable to cultural subgroups that are not well-served.
