Caregiving: Crisis and Solutions by Nancy Robson

My stay-at-home mom cared for her father for nearly two years until his increasing dementia and the demands of a young family became too much for her. Fortunately, there was a plain, clean, affordable facility staffed by kind souls nearby.

My turn at caregiving came when my dad was diagnosed with bone cancer. Our retired stepmother was Dad’s primary caregiver, but my brother and I, who both worked, had young children and lived an hour away, tag-teamed caregiving support over his last two years; during the last six weeks, one or the other of us went every day. It was tough. At one point, my brother phoned to say he thought Dad was taking him, too.

Yet we were lucky. Together, we had enough social support and wherewithal to do what Dad needed (whether he thought he needed it or not – another conversation altogether). Even so, it was darned hard.

Not everyone is so lucky. A confluence of factors including baby boomer age, divorce, childless couples, fewer children in families, (many scattered geographically), and economics, has created a crisis in the number of caregivers versus the number of those needing care.

We’re not big on proactive in the US. We’re mostly into crisis control even when we can see the crisis up ahead. AARP estimates that one in five Americans is currently taking care of someone over 50, most at home. Nearly 80 percent of their caregivers are unpaid family members or/and friends.

Caregiving is a demanding job that’s often thrust upon us, sometimes without warning. In addition to coping with the evolving needs of the cared-for, there are emotional and health risks to the caregiver — depression, anxiety, insomnia, increased chances of developing chronic illnesses, and slower healing of wounds among them.

 

Educating caregivers is critical. The report, Caregiving in America, from the Smeiding Center for Senior Health and Education notes that, “we know more about the health needs of older persons and treatment solutions that advance both physical and cognitive health, [yet] much of that knowledge is not reaching those who need it most.”In addition, “Physicians generally have little if any training in home- and community-based care. Few understand their patients’ home environment[sic] and often have little knowledge of how to access care, the different levels of caregivers, their proficiencies and skills… On the other side of this, caregivers [sometimes] expect high levels of physician attention for problems that, with a little education, they could solve relatively simply on their own,” the report notes.

Understanding nutritional needs, which have a big impact on quality of life, can help solve some problems. Technology too can have a big positive impact. Lynn Friss Feinberg, deputy director of the National Center on Caregiving at the Family Caregiving Alliance notes that technology advances are “providing tools to help family caregivers that simply did not exist a decade ago.”

Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh are developing assistive technologies to keep track of health status and activity levels of people living alone, mobility systems, improved wheelchairs, and systems that prolong the age at which older people may safely drive according to the Scmeiding report.

One technology that’s a huge help to both caregiver and cared-for is high-speed internet.

“[It] can be key to living independently…,” says Sally Abrams in an AARP blog. “You can go online or get smartphone apps that help you monitor chronic diseases, work from home to care for a loved one or prevent or delay functional decline with game systems. And, don’t forget the ability to be socially connected.”

Abrams’s post also lists:

Connectmyfolks.com, which lets caregivers exchange email, texts, photos and videos with loved ones. Caregivers can access it through virtually any device while the cared-for needs only an iPad and uses just three buttons. A list of 9 Need-to-Know Technologies for Caregivers is available here:

https://blog.aarp.org/2012/04/26/sally-abrahms-caregiving-technology-must-haves/

Caregivers may also be able to access tips, sources and other help through the nonprofit National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC) and the Family Caregiver Alliance (FCA). The Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregiving’s “Caring for You, Caring for Me” program also offers advice and connection.

Homeports, here in Kent County, has had a big hand in helping people deal practically and proactively with the changes that can sometimes compel an unwanted alteration in living arrangements, but access to technology is still a challenge. High-speed access is unavailable or unaffordable for many. And even if it’s available, many don’t know how to use it.

One possible solution is Janice Lynch Schuster’s “Caregiver Corps,” which would be modeled on the Peace Corps and Teach for America. It would require a two-year commitment in a volunteer’s own community. Volunteers would be educated on essential skills and offered incentives including student loan forgiveness, educational credit and monetary reimbursement.

It’s increasingly likely that at some point in life everyone will have had a hand in caregiving of some kind.Would I have wormed out of it if I could? Possibly. Am I glad I did it? Yes.

Nancy Taylor Robson, author with Sue Collins, RN of OK Now What? A Caregiver’s Guide to What Matters is a freelance writer and author of several books.