Speak Your Mind : Taking Care While Caretaking Essay

The final article I analyzed was titled “Aging Parents of Adults with Serious Mental Illness” and was written by Jennifer Van Pelt. This article sought to address the type of support parents caring for special needs adult children require as they age. It discussed how parents are the primary caregivers to children with a severe mental illness, or SMI, throughout the majority of the child’s life. The amount of care provided to adults with SMI by their aging parents is so substantial that if parental caregivers stopped providing care, public programs could never handle it. The author of this article wanted to put more focus on assisting the aging caregiver population, increase their emotional well-being, and lower their stress burden through the use of a social work home-based intervention program. In the pilot study, families received instruction on problem-solving techniques, education about the adult child’s particular mental illness, and sessions that included cognitive therapy, stress management, behavioral management, and future planning. This initial study yielded promising results, including greater life satisfaction and less emotional stress reported by aging parents. The author concludes the article by discussing the importance of planning for the future and how the adult child with SMI will be taken care of after the parents’ deaths.

Although, according to Williamson, “many caregivers adapt quite well to their role” (Williamson). Before my pap started losing his memory, I didn’t realize how hard it was to watch a loved one with this disease, let alone care for a patient with Alzheimer’s. According to an article that explains a few coping strategies for caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s disease, “caregivers of people with dementia experience high rates of clinically significant anxiety and depression” (Cooper). This article explains various emotion-focused strategies, problem-focused strategies, and dysfunction-focused strategies for those caring for a person with Alzheimer’s. An experiment was conducted on caregivers of patient who have Alzheimer’s that explains which of these strategies were

Equally as important, the care recipients who are often left out of the conversation are the informal elder caregivers themselves, especially when their self-care is imperative to be successful in their caregiver roles. Reinhard, Given, Petlick and Bemis (2008) propose research supporting assisting informal elder caregivers in becoming competent in their role as caregiver, to become aware of self-care and for the safety of their care recipients.

In my role as a care assistant, I care for elderly people who have a wide spectrum of physical conditions and dementia. I am responsible for delivering person centred care and I always treat people with dignity and respect. I have gained experience in the importance of meeting hydration and nutrition needs, personal care and communicating with people who may have communication, comprehension and sensory deficits. I have gained basic knowledge on the causes and treatments of disease by speaking to nurses and fellow care assistants. The nurses I work with have explained medical jargon and the uses of medication to me, which I feel would be useful for this course. I have completed a course on mental capacity and best interest’s decisions along

Throughout this essay I will share the reasons I have found for there being difficulties and also rewards of being a carer for a family member. ‘A carer is someone of any age who provides unpaid support to care for family or friends who could not manage without this help. This could be caring for a relative, partner or friend who is ill, frail, disabled or has mental health or substance misuse problems.’ (Carers Trust) I will attempt to use my course materials to draw on the experiences of Ann Walker who cares for her elderly step father Angus who has developed Parkinsons’ disease. Firstly I will look at some of the following difficulties that I have identified and due to the limitations of this study I will then briefly discuss the

According to Kim, Chang, Rose, & Kim (2011), care-giver burden has been defined as a multidimensional response to the negative appraisal and perceived stress resulting from the taking care of an ill individual (p. 846). More easily stated a care-giver is a person who assists another individual with one or more of their daily activities of living. A person who finds it necessary to care for a loved one suffering from dementia often finds the task daunting if not polarizing. The role of caregiver often times has a negative effect on the caregiver. These can include feelings of depression, isolation, fear and anger as well as the feelings of constant responsibility and social isolation (Kim et al., 2011).

Caregivers play a crucial role in the care of dementia patients. Providing care for dementia patients results in stress related health impacts to the caregiver. The caregivers go through a journey with the dementia patient and need a strong support system. The best approach to dementia care is for health care providers to provide information to and monitor the caregiver, in addition to the dementia patient, encourage the caregiver to take care of themselves, to seek support, and to work as a team to provide the best care for the dementia patient.

Caregiving is a responsibility best managed with plenty of help. Being a caregiver is very hard and tough work. It is very important that caregivers are taking care of just like their patients. Many caregivers give everything they have and do not rest when they really should take time to breathe and have time for themselves. That is why there are many organizations for caregivers and their patients. These organizations are made for the caregivers to teach them to be the best that they can be at their job and also making sure that their mental state is doing well.

Millions of people are in the role of a part or full time caregiver in the U.S to family members who have a serious illness or disability. This a a very challenging and demanding role that needs to be recognized and appreciated.

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Although the focus is on evaluating the caregivers’ quality of life, it is important to acknowledge how the patient themselves are in terms of well-ness when analyzing the caregiver, as varying levels of dementia can determine the amount of care needed. Shua-Haim, Hain, Shi, Kuo & Smith (2001) found that caregivers who cared for patients with depression were 3.1 times more likely to develop depression themselves, than those who took care of non-depressed patients. Baumgartern et al. (1994) older study indicated relatively similar results. After taking the CED scale, caregivers of dementia patients were 2.1 points more depressed than compared to the non-dementia caregiver group. These studies indicate, if the patient resembles depressive like symptoms, caregivers will likely do the same. It is also important to consider the patient’s symptoms and behavior as a factor on burden and the emotional toll it takes on the caregiver. Beach et al. (2005) found patients who needed more care in their activities of daily living, were more likely to report potentially harmful caregiver behaviors. This suggest possibly a higher negative impact on informal caregivers, caring for loved ones with more severe dementia.

In the U.S, one in four will be aged 60 years and older by 2050 (U.S. Census Bureau). This represents an overwhelming number of people who will either be in the caretaker role or be the ROC. Like today, most of the care will be provided by informal unpaid caregivers. The number of informal unpaid caregivers is expected to rise from 20 million in 2000 to 37 million in 2050 (Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation [ASPE], 2003). Because of the burden of care giving, many caregivers will experience depression, poor health and quality of life (Etters, Goodall, & Harrison, 2008). Their well-being is an important public health concern.

The caregiver decided to provide care to the older adult because she feels a strong desire to provide him with a good end-of-life. Providing care to her husband hasn't effected her as much as it may effect other people. She has worked with the elderly population for 15 years so when starting care with her husband she was already aware of many things she could do and may need to do. However, the caregiver does feel that some days it can be extremely exhausting. A joy the caregiver feels is the amount her and her husband have grown together and how much more she has learned about his life. She said that something she finds frustrating is when the older adult has an accident right after she gets done changing his clothes. The biggest frustration

According to Alzheimer’s Association (2010) seventy percent of total number of people living with Alzheimer’s disease are not institutionalized which means that they are provided with care of caregivers. Montgomery and Kosloski (2009, 47-48) claimed that caregivers must be provided with aid in order not to stop looking after people living with Alzheimer’s disease. It is apparent that caring necessitate much time, which can have effect on a caregiver’s personal life (job, relationship with friends and etc.). Providing caregivers with help required much effort and it is not an easy task. Many interventions have not taken into account that every caregiver is unique. Different services such as ‘educational programs, counseling, support groups, and respite services’ have been used (ibid,47). However, many caregivers refuse the supports, but the amount which was achieved in supporting services is considered to be useful for caregivers. Many support providers complain that caregivers do not use the services very much, because they think that they are not beneficial. This can apply

Caregiver support groups play a valuable role in assisting individuals with coping with a loved one’s disease, injury and/or disorder. In this paper, I will discuss the support group, topics discussed and my personal feelings about the support group.