My husband grew up in a multi-generational home. Watching Saturday afternoon television with his grandmother and playing cards with her were favorite activities. Having Grandma’s hospital bed in the living room was just a part of normal life.
Part of ‘normal’ life for his mother, however, was providing significant care for Grandma. Care from bathing, dressing and giving medications to managing complex medical conditions toward the end of Grandma’s life.
His mother did what most families in their neighborhood did in the 1960s — they cared for family elders at home. The notion that she was a ‘caregiver’ was not part of my mother-in-law’s lexicon. Her efforts were a labor of love she gladly provided, but it was indeed a significant labor. And without readily-available community supports, it was mostly a solo act.
Fortunately, today, there are many home and community based options to help provide care at home as well as other support to lighten a caregiver’s load. It doesn’t have to be a solo act.
A wide variety of services are available; from in-home care for people who have significant physical or cognitive needs, to episodic companionship care, help with household chores and more. Services are sometimes provided at little or no charge to families, while other services are fee-based.
Staff at the Area Agency on Aging can help families know about available options. You can talk to them by calling the Info-Line for Aging and Disability at (800) 654-2810.
One of the challenges of providing support for family caregivers is that, like my mother-in-law, many people don’t identify themselves as caregivers and therefore don’t reach out for help. They see their efforts as simply doing what families do – taking care of each other.
While that’s a worthy and noble mindset, there’s danger in toughing it out alone.
Caregivers are often so concerned with caring for others’ needs that they lose sight of their own well-being. Conservative statistics show that 30% of caregivers die before the care recipient. Some studies show deaths among caregivers even higher. Illness that does not lead to death is also rampant. Depression and auto-immune diseases are high on the list.
Caregivers often don’t find time to go to their own doctor appointments. As a result, things like breast cancer and other diseases, which might have otherwise been caught at an early stage, aren’t found until the illness is much worse or even life threatening.
Caregivers are as important as the people for whom they provide care. If they neglect their physical and emotional health while caring for others, no one wins.
A caregiver is defined as anyone — a spouse, partners, family member, friend or neighbor – involved in providing unpaid assistance with activities of daily living and/or medical tasks to others. It can be for someone who lives with you, near you or even far away.
If you routinely, or even on an episodic basis, aid or check in on someone who needs assistance — perhaps making sure they take their medications, make it to appointments, or to the grocery — you are a caregiver!
The Area Agency on Aging (AAA) works to develop supports and services to meet the current needs of local caregivers. To best target limited resources, the AAA wants to hear from caregivers about their caregiving role and the challenges they face.
If you provide unpaid care or assistance to a family member or friend who has a health condition, long-term illness or disability, visit AreaAgencyonAging.org and complete the Caregiver Needs Survey.
Your input will help shape available caregiver supports and services throughout southwest Michigan and help make certain no one has to travel the caregiving journey alone.