Respite, Counseling, and Care Coordination: The Best Ways Taxpayers Could Protect Caregiver Health

Caregiving with insufficient support can put our health at risk. According to the Office on Women’s Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, family caregivers:

• “are more likely to be have symptoms of depression or anxiety
• are more likely to have a long-term medical problem, such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, or arthritis
• have higher levels of stress hormones
• spend more days sick with an infectious disease
• have a weaker immune response to the influenza, or flu, vaccine
• have slower wound healing
• have higher levels of obesity, and
• may be at higher risk for mental decline, including problems with memory and paying attention.”

Many of us know caregivers who died before the person they were caring for. One study referred to by the Office on Women’s Health found that “elderly people who felt stressed while taking care of their disabled spouses were 63 percent more likely to die within four years than caregivers who were not feeling stressed.”

Federal, state and local governments are not providing family caregivers with the level of support we need. It’s a matter of limited funds, but also of ignorance. The day-to-day responsibilities of family caregivers often remain invisible (even to other family members and coworkers), and we don’t realize, as a community, how much family caregivers are suffering.

In my post this week for caregivers.com I explain why caregiver stress has grown into one of our greatest public health concerns, and I describe the 3 kinds of community services that caregivers need the most to combat that stress. 

Read more here.

Hospice and Alzheimer's Disease: Do Family Caregivers Receive Enough Support in the Final Days?

It’s a common misunderstanding that hospice provides care 24 hours a day.

Like many family caregivers, I assumed that once my mother was actively dying, hospice staff would glide into her nursing home like angels and support both her and me around the clock. (I was wrong.)

If your loved one lives in an elder care facility, or at home, it’s important to know ahead of time that the hospice team (which includes nurses, social workers, home health aides, volunteers, chaplains, and bereavement counselors) will visit you and your loved one only a few hours a day or week. Only in a stand-alone hospice care residence (an “inpatient” hospice facility) will your loved one receive around-the-clock care, and you around-the-clock emotional support.

In my post this week for caregivers.com, I compare my experience with hospice in a nursing home with the more positive experience of Ann Napoletan, author of the Alzheimer's blog "The Long and Winding Road," whose mother passed away in a hospice care residence.

The limitations of hospice become most apparent in two scenarios, I believe:

1) when a loved one declines rapidly, without warning, and has not already qualified for hospice; and

2) when a loved one dies at home, in assisted living, or a nursing home, rather than in a hospice care residence.

My mother’s situation happened to reflect both.

As caregivers we do the best we can to protect our loved ones and be there for them, but it’s helpful to recognize our own need for support as we face the unknown.

I hope that my sharing my story will help you be better prepared.

Read "Hospice: When It Relieves Caregiver Anxiety, and When It Falls Short" here.

A First Stop for Caregiver Support: Your Office for the Aging

"Caregiver Support" by the Animated Woman (http://www.theanimatedwoman.com)When my mother moved in with me and my young family in 2005, I thought of myself as a daughter, not as a “caregiver,” and I had no idea I needed support. Fortunately, a neighbor of mine, who was a long-distance caregiver for her mother, told me about our county’s Office for the Aging, and recommended that I make an appointment with one of their counselors.

If this neighbor hadn’t told me about the Office for the Aging, I doubt I would have known they existed. Often, that’s how it goes when you become a caregiver—you don’t know where to turn for help, or even that you need help.

In this week's post for caregivers.com, I outline "7 Reasons to Call Your Office for the Aging" and give you a link to find your local office.

You can read more here.

My Favorite Online Tools for Caregivers

"Caregiver Support" by The Animated WomanI love this drawing by “The Animated Woman” (called “Caregiver Support,” and shared here with permission). The person in the middle is both caring for the person on the left and being supported by the person on the right. As caregivers we need this kind of support, don’t we? It’s like a chain—the beginning of what is sometimes called a “circle of care.”

Do you know someone who needs assistance because of a crisis, illness, injury or long-term condition? Do you know a caregiver who is stretched to the limit? Using free and super-easy tools on the Web, you can help them by building a circle of care.

In this post for the blog caregivers.com, I describe 3 of my favorite free tools online to help family caregivers:  Meal Train, Lotsa Helping Hands, and eCareDiary.