Everything kind of fell apart and was perilous for a number of years.

There was a switch that happened and it was dislocating for all of us trying to figure out how to negotiate that transition.

As she got older and frailer, it was sometimes difficult to say who was providing and who was getting more care. In addition, it's not as simple as give and get. In my family, my oldest brother Nic and I are part of that caregiving team. First of all, there's generally many people involved. There's someone who gives care, someone who gets care. People think caregiving is a simple procedure. You mention the term 'caregiving' didn't really fit for the relationship between your mother and Olivier. Mitchell Book Prize, The Unravelling is a candid, painful and, at times, comical account of what it's like to navigate a perplexing health-care system that fails to meet the needs of the patient.Ĭlem, a playwright, screenwriter and novelist who teaches in the University of Calgary's drama department, spoke with The Globe and Mail by phone. He, in turn, provided companionship and helped her as she became increasingly frail.īut when it becomes clear she can no longer maintain her role in their collaborative care, the family seeks professional help, only to encounter red tape, overworked health workers, overcrowded facilities and, often, more frustrations than solutions.īitter Medicine: A Graphic Memoir of Mental Illness, which won accolades including the City of Calgary W.O. She supported him as he struggled with schizophrenia. For nearly 40 years, Catherine and Olivier lived together. The family's ability to take care of one another had long depended on a delicate balance. Meanwhile, living on his own for the first time in decades, Olivier eats two bananas for dinner and stares absently at a broken television set, feeling lonely and guilty that he let his mother down.Ī drawing by Olivier Martini excerpted from The Unravelling.

Between refusing to shower and protesting her move to a hospital, Catherine sobs as she worries about who will remind Olivier to take his pills. The memoir, told through text by Clem and illustrations by Olivier, recounts their family's desperate scramble when their mother, Catherine, develops dementia. And with a growing number of families encountering this very scenario, they suggest, the need to address these questions is urgent. The answers are frightening, chaotic and heart-breaking, Clem and his brother Olivier Martini reveal in their new memoir, 'But what happens when that solution collapses? What happens when caregivers grow too old to provide care, or get ill and require care themselves?' 'The governments of this country, federal and provincial, have turned to family caregiving as the go-to solution for those struggling with mental illnesses,' Calgary author Clem Martini writes.

A Revolta by Clem Martini