JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Sunday, July 20, 2025

NATIONAL FAMILY CAREGIVERS MONTH

Caregiving around the Clock

by

1720 days ago
20201103

HEALTH PLUS MED­ICAL COR­RE­SPON­DENT

Care­giv­ing is a tough job. This No­vem­ber, with­in which nu­mer­ous Health Days are com­mem­o­rat­ed, we re­mem­ber the in­di­vid­u­als who lov­ing­ly give baths and med­ica­tions, clean hous­es, shop for, and com­fort the mil­lions of el­der­ly and ail­ing pa­tients who are clients, friends or loved ones. We al­so recog­nise that the every­day de­mands of care­giv­ing are al­ready a full-time job, made even more chal­leng­ing with the ad­di­tion­al de­ci­sion-mak­ing and pro­tec­tive mea­sures to safe­guard your loved ones from COVID-19.

No­vem­ber is Na­tion­al Fam­i­ly Care­givers Month and this year’s theme is “Care­giv­ing Around the Clock.”

Na­tion­al Fam­i­ly Care­givers Month high­lights es­sen­tial in­for­ma­tion to help care­givers cope with a tough, and some­times thank­less job. Fo­cus is placed on the chal­lenges care­givers ex­pe­ri­ence, learn­ing the skills to speak ef­fec­tive­ly with doc­tors, and be­ing open to new, as­sis­tive tech­nolo­gies that can light­en your load and most im­por­tant­ly pre­vent Care­giv­er Burnout. If you don’t take care of your­self, who will?

Care­givers of­ten ig­nore their own health

Watch­ing a par­ent age or see­ing some­one change dras­ti­cal­ly due to ill­ness can be dev­as­tat­ing. Har­vard Health re­ports, “Ap­prox­i­mate­ly 70 per­cent of care­givers in­di­cat­ed they don’t see their doc­tor reg­u­lar­ly be­cause of their re­spon­si­bil­i­ties.” Main­tain­ing your own well­be­ing is cru­cial, but of­ten dif­fi­cult. If you are not sleep­ing well, ex­er­cis­ing, or feel your­self be­com­ing reclu­sive, speak to a health care pro­fes­sion­al about de­pres­sion. It can hit any­one, at any time.

What is Care­giv­er Stress Syn­drome?

Care­giv­er stress syn­drome is a con­di­tion char­ac­terised by phys­i­cal, men­tal and emo­tion­al ex­haus­tion. It typ­i­cal­ly re­sults from a per­son ne­glect­ing his/her own phys­i­cal and emo­tion­al health be­cause he/she is fo­cused on car­ing for an ill, in­jured or dis­abled loved one. Care­giv­ing may in­volve meet­ing com­plex de­mands with­out any train­ing or help.

There are sev­er­al fac­tors that can play a role in care­giv­er stress syn­drome. For some care­givers, the stress­es of car­ing for a per­son who has a de­bil­i­tat­ing ill­ness and feel­ing help­less while care­giv­ing, re­sults in burnout. For oth­ers, the lack of bound­aries be­tween their roles as a care­giv­er and a spouse, child, or oth­er loved one can be chal­leng­ing. Care­givers put un­re­al­is­tic ex­pec­ta­tions on them­selves, think­ing that they can do it all and re­fus­ing to ask for help. The fi­nan­cial re­sources need­ed to care for some­one with a long-term ill­ness or dis­abil­i­ty al­so con­tributes to the over­whelm.

The mag­ni­tude of the prob­lem

Care­giv­er stress syn­drome is strong­ly as­so­ci­at­ed with neg­a­tive health out­comes. Be­tween 40 to 70% of care­givers suf­fer from de­pres­sion, while many care­givers al­so have anx­i­ety be­cause of the stress as­so­ci­at­ed with pro­vid­ing care. Anger and ir­ri­tabil­i­ty are al­so com­mon symp­toms of care­giv­er stress syn­drome. The chron­ic stress may al­so lead to high blood pres­sure, di­a­betes, and a com­pro­mised im­mune sys­tem.

Ac­cord­ing to stud­ies by Har­vard Health:

- 45% of care­givers re­port­ed chron­ic con­di­tions, in­clud­ing heart at­tacks, heart dis­ease, can­cer, di­a­betes, and arthri­tis;

- Women who spend nine or more hours a week car­ing for a spouse in­creased their risk of heart dis­ease by 100%;

- Care­givers have a 23% high­er lev­el of stress hor­mones and 15% low­er lev­el of an­ti­body re­spons­es than non-care­givers,

- 72% of care­givers re­port that they had not gone to the doc­tor as of­ten as they should have;

- 58% of care­givers state that their eat­ing habits are worse than be­fore they as­sumed this role;

- Care­givers be­tween the ages of 66 and 96 have a 63% high­er mor­tal­i­ty rate than non-care­givers of the same age.

What to look out for?

The signs in­clude:

- Feel­ing over­whelmed or help­less

- Feel­ing alone, iso­lat­ed, or de­sert­ed by oth­ers

- Sleep­ing too much or too lit­tle

- Gain­ing or los­ing a lot of weight, change in ap­petite

- Los­ing in­ter­est in ac­tiv­i­ties you used to en­joy

- Be­com­ing eas­i­ly ir­ri­tat­ed or an­gered

- Feel­ing tired most of the time

- Hav­ing headaches or body aches of­ten

- Get­ting sick more of­ten

- Turn­ing to un­healthy be­hav­iours like smok­ing or drink­ing al­co­hol

What can I do to pre­vent or re­lieve care­giv­er stress?

Once you have recog­nised the signs of care­giv­er stress syn­drome, the next step is to man­age it. One of the first things that you can and should do is to take a break. Hav­ing this con­di­tion isn’t un­usu­al, the key is to make your own health a pri­or­i­ty so that you can con­tin­ue to pro­vide care for your loved one.

Re­mem­ber that if you feel bet­ter, you can take bet­ter care of your loved one.

Tak­ing steps to pre­vent or re­lieve care­giv­er stress WILL help pre­vent health prob­lems.

It will al­so be eas­i­er to fo­cus on the re­wards of care­giv­ing. Some ways to help your­self in­clude:

- Stay­ing in touch with fam­i­ly and friends. It's im­por­tant for you to have emo­tion­al sup­port.

- Ask­ing for and ac­cept­ing help. Make a list of ways oth­ers can help you. Let helpers choose what they would like to do. For in­stance, some­one might sit with the per­son you care for, while you do an er­rand. Some­one else might pick up gro­ceries for you.

- Learn­ing bet­ter ways to help your loved one. For ex­am­ple, hos­pi­tals of­fer class­es that can teach you how to care for some­one with an in­jury or ill­ness.

- Find­ing care­giv­ing re­sources in your com­mu­ni­ty to help you. Many com­mu­ni­ties have adult day­care ser­vices or respite ser­vices. Us­ing one of these can give you a break from your care­giv­ing du­ties.

- Tak­ing care of your own health. Try to find time to be phys­i­cal­ly ac­tive on most days of the week, choose healthy foods, and get enough sleep. Make sure that you keep up with your med­ical care such as reg­u­lar check­ups and screen­ings.

- Con­sid­er­ing tak­ing a break from your job if you al­so work and are feel­ing over­whelmed. Check with your hu­man re­sources of­fice about your op­tions.

- En­gag­ing tech­nol­o­gy. There are apps to as­sist in man­ag­ing the phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal needs of your loved ones and en­sure med­ica­tions are de­liv­ered in a time­ly man­ner.

Care­giv­er stress syn­drome does not have to be your re­al­i­ty. While it can have a neg­a­tive im­pact on your life and well-be­ing, there are ways to re­cov­er and to be a hap­pi­er, health­i­er care­giv­er for your loved one. By tak­ing time for your­self and fo­cus­ing on your own needs, you can avoid the per­ils of care­giv­er stress syn­drome.

Look out for HEALTH PLUS every Tues­day for more in­for­ma­tive and health­ful ar­ti­cles. If you have any ques­tions or con­cerns re­gard­ing this top­ic, please email Guardian­Health­Plus2020@gmail.com


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored