Providing care has strong impact on family caregivers - what you should know.

Believe it or not, many people who provide care to someone they know do not think of themselves as caregivers. In providing the following type of help, you are acting as a caregiver to someone: buying groceries, cooking, cleaning, laundry, making doctor appointments, driving to the doctor, ordering medications, coordinating care, helping someone with showering, dressing or taking medications. Family caregivers are anyone who provides care including a partner/spouse, adult children, parents, other relative, neighbor or  friend. Of course, there are also caregivers who are hired by families through agencies to support the family when they are in need of respite or can no longer endure the weight of long term caregiving.

In understanding the role of the caregiver, it is important for people who provide care to identify themselves as a "caregiver" as well as by their relationship to the person (spouse/partner, adult child, sibling, etc.).  Mostly because if individuals do not identify themselves as "caregivers", they have a tendency to not seek available resources as readily as they should. Once caregivers identify themselves as such, professionals are in the position of helping family members manage this role.

Some challenges faced by family caregivers are:

1.     Pain is undertreated leading to behavioral issues
2.     Communication skills important in dealing with dementia, as it is counter intuitive
3.     Caregivers hurt themselves (ie: back problems due to lack of training)
4.     Caregivers inadvertently hurt the care recipient by not knowing how to provide care appropriately
5.     Skills can be taught and resources are available

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Statistics List:

•     14% of caregivers rate the physical strain of caregiving high
•     31% rate the emotional stress of caregiving high
•     23% of family caregivers caring for five years or more reported their health is fair or poor
•     Family caregivers experiencing extreme stress have been shown to age prematurely. This level of stress can take as much as 10 years off a family caregiver's life
•     11% of family caregivers report that caregiving has caused their physical health to deteriorate

Family Caregiver Needs:

• Respite/breaks from caregiving are essential
• Caregivers need to be able to admit when they can not do something. They must also take care of their own health.
• Getting information about community resources.
• Say "YES" to offers of help.
• Find sources of support.

Gentle Home Services offers a myriad of non-medical services to assist families in need of private duty home care. Please contact our office with questions about care or resources.