| Description |
211 pages ; 24 cm |
| Summary |
"Already Toast is a memoir and feminist cultural critique of how unpaid family caregiving affects women in America"-- Provided by publisher. |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (page [188]-203) and index. |
| Contents |
Introduction. Collateral damage -- The learning curve : beginning caregiving -- The thick of it : BMTU, part one -- On his blindness : BMTU, part two -- Careworn : life after discharge -- To a crisp : burnout -- Invaluable : work and the economics of caring -- A lack of reasonable options : sandwiched caregiving -- Something is not right : post-caregiving stress -- The aftermath : rebuilding from caregiving -- Damage control : how to (really) help caregivers -- Key sources and resources. |
| Summary |
"The story of one woman's struggle to care for her seriously ill husband--and a revealing look at the role unpaid family caregivers play in a society that fails to provide them with structural support. Already Toast shows how all-consuming caregiving can be, how difficult it is to find support, and how the social and literary narratives that have long locked women into providing emotional labor also keep them in unpaid caregiving roles. When Kate Washington and her husband, Brad, learned that he had cancer, they were a young couple: professionals with ascending careers, parents to two small children. Brad's diagnosis stripped those identities away: he became a patient and she his caregiver. Brad's cancer quickly turned aggressive, necessitating a stem-cell transplant that triggered a massive infection, robbing him of his eyesight and nearly of his life. Kate acted as his full-time aide to keep him alive, coordinating his treatments, making doctors' appointments, calling insurance companies, filling dozens of prescriptions, cleaning commodes, administering IV drugs. She became so burned out that, when she took an online quiz on caregiver self-care, her result cheerily declared: "You're already toast!" Through it all, she felt profoundly alone, but, as she later learned, she was in fact one of millions: an invisible army of family caregivers working every day in America, their unpaid labor keeping our troubled healthcare system afloat. Because our culture both romanticizes and erases the realities of care work, few caregivers have shared their stories publicly. As the baby-boom generation ages, the number of family caregivers will continue to grow. Readable, relatable, timely, and often raw, Already Toast--with its clear call for paying and supporting family caregivers--is a crucial intervention in that conversation, bringing together personal experience with deep research to give voice to those tasked with the overlooked, vital work of caring for the seriously ill" -- Provided by publisher. |
| Subject |
Caregivers -- United States -- Psychology.
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Women -- United States -- Psychology.
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Burn out (Psychology) -- United States.
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MEDICAL / Caregiving.
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BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Medical (incl. Patients).
|
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Burn out (Psychology) (OCoLC)fst00841904
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Caregivers -- Psychology.
(OCoLC)fst00847349
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Women -- Psychology.
(OCoLC)fst01176894
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United States. (OCoLC)fst01204155
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| Other Form: |
Online version: Washington, Kate, 1972- Already toast Boston : Beacon Press, 2020. 9780807011751 (DLC) 2020030913 |
| ISBN |
9780807011508 hardcover |
|
0807011509 hardcover |
|
