Donna Thomson

Writer, Policy Options and Open Democracy

Donna Thomson writes on caregiving for Policy Options https://policyoptions.irpp.org/authors/donna-thomson/ and for Transformation, an online publication of Open Democracy https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/author/donna-thomson/.

University of Ottawa

BEd

Education

1977

Concordia University

BFA

Theatre (Performance)

1976

Magna Cum Laude

Central School of Speech and Drama

DTIE

Theatre in Education (Applied Drama)

1997

Director of Geriatrics, Sinai Health System and University Health Network, Toronto and Health Policy Research Director, National Institute on Ageing (Canada)

Mount Sinai Hospital

Nobody grows up planning to be a caregiver, but many of us will become one and sometimes when we least expect it. Donna Thomson and Zachary White bring powerful insights to help us understand what it means to be a caregiver and how to truly support those of us who will travel this unexpected journey. (Samir K. Sinha, Director of Geriatrics, Sinai Health System and University Health Network, Toronto and Health Policy Research Director, National Institute on Ageing (Canada)

Founder and President, The Caregiver Space

The Caregiver Space

Finally! A totally honest assessment of the caregiving experience. Not just another workbook, disease specific account or “how to” book (though there are many helpful guidelines), but a no-nonsense look at the ongoing reality and challenges of how the caregiving experience changes your life. Fear, anger, the unknown—normalcy—are dealt with in a direct, caring and expert manner. Whether you are a “newbie” or a long-term caregiver, this book illustrates all we have in common and gives us guidelines to cope wherever we are in our journey. (Adrienne Gruberg, Founder and President, The Caregiver Space)

The Chambers Family Lecture, American Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine

AGM, AACPDM  Fort Lauderdale, FLA

2016-09-22

The Caregiving Effect: When Love Meets Necessity in Palliative Care

McGill Council on Palliative Care Annual Lecture  McGill University

2019-05-07

Cities Deepening Community, Tamarack Institute

Asset Based Community Development Workshop  Waterloo, ON

2019-04-17

About Care: Know What You Need and Get What You Want

Transitioning through levels of care can be confusing and traumatic, whether it is for yourself or for an ageing parent. This talk offers practical advice and strategic tips on how to survive the process with your sense of control, your dignity and your employment intact.

Resilience, Optimism and Endurance: The Undervalued Survival Skills

Maintaining personal health and productivity through times of chaos and adversity is difficult, but not impossible. This talk will assist audience members to prepare for surviving difficult life events by creating personal support networks and developing strategies that enable effective crisis management while not compromising personal wellbeing.

Mobilizing the Hidden Army of First Responders

Donna Thomson, Vickie Cammack

2020-01-09

ild fires. Torrential rains and flooding. Violent windstorms. As changing weather bombards us with evidence of the global climate crisis, we are ignoring some of our most powerful first responders – natural carers. In the country’s move to confront the climate crisis and to become carbon neutral, Canada also need to be care-positive, and that means leveraging the skills and capacities of our 8 million caregivers in disaster planning. Catherine McKenna, as Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, has a unique opportunity to lead on this agenda.

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Recognizing the Worth of Natural Caregivers

Donna Thomson, Vickie Cammack

2017-05-29

The planet has a temperature, and it’s not just because of climate change. The unpredictability of the future is making us sick with worry. But in the meantime, we can always count on the love and care of family. . .can’t we?

Not necessarily. Millennials might be surprised to learn they will spend more time and money looking after their parents than they will in caring for their own children. An aging population and smaller families together with reduced health and social care budgets make it clear that this is not dystopian fiction.

Caring for someone takes a physical toll over time and creates unanticipated financial pressures. In the near future, these challenges will be exacerbated by the growing numbers of people living with demanding health conditions such as dementia with fewer and fewer people to take care of them. The natural web of caring that so many of us take for granted is at risk of unravelling. What is needed is a robust social movement that values the deeply personal and broad societal benefits of caring for one another without hiding the difficulties.

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Navigating the Transformation From Loved One to Caregiver

Donna Thomson, Zachary White

2019-06-04

ersonal transformation is usually an experience we actively seek out - not one that hunts us down. But in the twenty-first century, becoming a caregiver is a transformation that comes at us because today the ‘call to care’ is at odds with the imperative of work and the call to individual achievement. Being a caregiver is not something most people think or dream about, let alone prepare for, even though it’s a role many of us will inhabit, since there are approximately 43 million informal caregivers in the United States and 6.5 million caregivers in the United Kingdom.

When a loved one becomes a caregiver everything changes, including responsibilities, beliefs, hopes, expectations and relationships. Caregiving is always different than we imagine it to be, largely because so few of us think through our care roles in advance. The disorientation associated with these roles can be deep, intense, and isolating because it entails a series of paradoxes, including an ongoing tension that becomes difficult to reconcile: this is a relationship you may not want but feel you must accept.

In the resulting process of transformation, your loved one’s story, your story, your relationship story, and the ‘cure’ story you have mapped out in your head can betray you when what happens isn’t what you thought would happen - or should. It’s as if someone steals the script you have been working from your whole life through.

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