Did you know that 2011 is "The Year of the Caregiver"? The National Family Caregiver Support Program (NFCSP) is celebrating ten years of working to help caregivers, and the US Administration on Aging has declared 2011 to be "The Year of the Caregiver." Read on for more information and for additional news for caregivers and caregiving.
Note: I am not affiliated with, nor do I necessarily endorse or have any additional information about, any of the organizations linked to in this document. - JB
From the website of the National Family Caregiver Support Program (NFCSP):
"For ten years, the National Family Caregiver Support Program (NFCSP) has provided much-needed services to assist family members who care for grandparents, parents, spouses, and children who cannot care for themselves. NFCSP funded initiatives, the Aging Network, and other caregiver organizations continuously strive to meet the needs of both caregivers and the people in their care.
To recognize NFCSP's decade of achievement and the family caregivers we serve, the U.S. Administration on Aging is collaborating with national caregiver organizations to sponsor a year of celebration." - Read more at CelebratingFamilyCaregivers.org
In a way, the timing couldn't have worked out better. The population is aging as Baby Boomers begin to head into retirement, and many of them are confronting - or will be confronted with - caregiving issues concerning themselves, their parents and their siblings.
Many "Boomers" are already caregivers and don't realize it.
And many of the offspring of "Boomers" - their children and grandchildren - are finding themselves in the role of caregiver. For many, it's nothing new or different: it's just a fact of life, something that's always been part of their routine.
One of the biggest concerns during caregiving is that family caregivers and caregiving professionals are sometimes at odds with each other. It's important for both to realize that caregivers are full partners in healthcare, and just as important as this - perhaps more so, in terms of quality of life for the patient - is the critical role that communication plays in caregiving. It touches not only the interaction between the patient & caregiver, but also the interactions between the patient and the world - including, at times, professional caregivers and legal/medical representatives.
The Costs and Responsibilities of Caregiving
As the population ages (particularly in these times of economic uncertainty), more and more people over the age of fifty find themselves caring for aging parents. There are costs associated with such care: costs to caregiver health, costs in terms of lost wages and lost retirement, costs that aren't covered by or exceed insurance...it adds up. A recent study by MetLife showed how "Boomers" could be find themselves in double jeopardy as they take on caregiving roles: The MetLife Study of Caregiving Costs to Working Caregivers: Double Jeopardy for Baby Boomers Caring for Their Parents (available for download in PDF form at the link) gives a sobering overview of it. It's worth reading and sharing.
Caregivers often find themselves shouldering a lot of responsibilities for the safety and security of their loved one, ranging from helping to keep them free from scammers to the need to be aware of how to make the home a more safe and secure environment.
Part and parcel with the safety & security issues - and oft unmentioned in conversations I've had with a few others - is the need to include a degree of emergency preparedness planning. (The Administration on Aging has some good information relating to that at the link provided.)
With all these concerns, what many caregivers refer to as a labor of love can quickly drain resources - physical, mental, emotional and financial. Caregiver burnout becomes a very real concern:
"...there are two goals of equal importance that all caregivers should adopt. The first, which almost all caregivers do automatically, is to provide the best possible care for their loved ones. The second, which many caregivers never consider, is to give the best possible care to themselves.
Both goals require commitment, patience, understanding, compassion and respect to both the person being cared for and to the person giving the care.
Caregiving is an all-encompassing responsibility too large for one person. The caregiver must learn to ask for help rather than feeling the job must be done alone." - Betty Berry of Senior Concerns
Read more: http://www.vcstar.com/...
- vcstar.com
Fortunately, there are a lot of resources available for caregivers. The National Caregiver Support Program (NFCSP) is one - there are lots of others. Some of these can be found in the form of compilations of options on a web page like the Caregiver Resource Links - Assistive Technology page from The Caregiver Partnership. Others may take the form of new technology that may or may not be suited to one's own particular caregiving situation.
I've recently started to see more opportunities for caregivers in the form of informational symposiums like The New Age of Caregiving Symposium that will be taking place in Clearwater, Florida on September 23. (Reminder: I am not affiliated with, nor do I necessarily endorse or have any additional information about, any of the organizations linked to in this document.)
Undertaking the role of caregiver is a big responsibility. Yes - it is definitely a labor of love. And yes - it is often the hardest job you'll ever have.
Become as informed as you can when you start your journey, and use any resources that you can in order to expand your capacity to take care of both your charge as well as yourself. There's often help "out there" - it's often knowing where to look or receiving the right information about to access that help that is difficult.
With luck, experienced caregivers and new caregivers will find their way toward each other using various forms of new media and technology, so that knowledge can be shared and the roads we must each travel may be marked with helpful information and guideposts.
Namaste.
This piece was originally published on Storify, but was written explicitly for this blog.