Care-Givers! Give Yourself A Break

By Dana Pavelock, Director of Home Care Operations

10 Commandments for Care-Givers
1. Be True To Yourself 2. Know Your Limits 3. Make Time for Yourself 4. Know When to Say No 5. Know When To Ask For Help 6. Know When To Get Counseling 7. Have Empathy, Not Sympathy For Your Care Recipient 8. Have Compassion olr Them And Yourself 9. Enlist Your Family Support 10. Create Support for Yourself

Roughly 25 percent of families are relying on informal family caregivers to bridge the needs of caring for a loved one at home. Today, 30 million households are providing care for an adult over the age of 50 and this number is expected to double over the next 25 years. This informal and highly motivated workforce of caregivers often find themselves struggling to navigate a very complex system of health care and are under a great deal of stress. Informal caregivers tend to be family members, mostly women between age 45 and 65, attempting to balance the needs of parents and grandparents with children and grandchildren. Often these individuals find themselves suddenly immersed in the role of caregiver without warning, preparation and/or training and are at risk of compromising their own health care and social needs. Rarely is there a support system for them. As the aging population continues to grow at a very fast rate there will be more and more demands placed upon family caregivers. Combined also with a higher life expectancy and with the trend for the aging population to want to remain at home, we will need ongoing support from local county, government and private agencies.
Some of you reading this may not be in a care-giving role at this time. While you might not be thinking about it now, being proactive and establishing a plan now, in anticipation you will soon be launched into caring for a family member may help avoid some of the stress and other tensions that materialize both at work and at home. The first step should begin with discussing with having a conversation with your and the person you expect will require more care and support to live safely at home, identifying potential support and services that are readily available, anticipating care needs and establishing a plan. All too often, one person takes on the primary role as caregiver which often leads to physical and emotional exhaustion and can result in development of increased health risks to the caregiver.
Fortunately there is help available for individuals who find themselves suddenly in that care-giving role. The best resource is to start by contacting your counties Office for the Aging, surfing the internet and reaching out to home care agencies for help. There is a wealth of information that will provide you with the necessary tools and support you may need so that you can take good care of a loved one and at the same time help maintain your own quality of life. As you might expect, it takes a very special person to fulfill the role of caregiver. In our particular agency, we have long recognized the value of both paid and unpaid family caregivers, recently obtaining a grant through the Dutchess County Office of the Aging to lead a Caregiver Support, Training and Counseling program that provides various workshops, trainings and even an employee to provide one on one visitation in the home, free of charge for caregivers.
When it comes to paid caregivers, please do not underestimate their genuine concern and passion for what it is they do every day. Relationships that are formed between patients and our caregivers is priceless and can be captured by quoting a few words taken from a poem written by Sharon Greene, Home Health Aide; “I am a health care worker, I enjoy my job and this is what I do best. Put a smile on someone’s face, making their day and just being there for them.”