Directed by Sharon Ann McGowan for the National Film Board of Canada
The
vast majority of ailing elderly people are taken care of at home by a family
member, usually a wife, daughter or mother. Women, traditionally, are expected
to cope with family responsibilities and to provide care without financial rewards.
While their efforts reduce society's longterm care costs, the caregivers go
largely unnoticed and get little help from others.
In this documentary we hear from four women who have provided continuous care for a loved one. We see their painstaking and exhausting routines as they massage, groom, dress, clean, cook, and respond to demands. The women speak candidly of the physical and emotional stress of this responsibility. Although they gain emotional satisfaction, they are at high risk themselves, subject to burn-out, illness and isolation. They are in need of support systems equally as much as those they nurture.
National Council on Aging, 1993
National Women's Studies Association, 1993
Bronze Apple, National Educational Film & Video Association, 1993
National Council on Family Relations, 1991
International Festival of Red Cross and Health Films, 1991
28 min. Video or DVD. Sale: $295. Video rental $55.
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