Please Share Why Caregiver Education Would Benefit You

Caregiver education and support is one of the key components we want the presidential candidates and State leaders to address.

We would like for you to share your stories of your day to day struggles with caregiving here.

There is a growing group of caregivers for an aging family member. While this can rewarding it is also emotionally and physically experience.

There are many types of family caregivers – the working caregiver, the reluctant caregiver, the long distance caregiver, the spouse caregiver etc.

Most describe how they “fell into the role” of caregiver.

The majority have done so without any previous medical training. Most feel they are alone in their journey and lack ongoing support to help balance their various responsibilities such as work and taking care of their own family.

This creates a situation where family caregivers experience stress and feelings of being overwhelmed.

Having support and practical advice on the caregiving issues many face is essential for family caregivers to be successful. The present medical delivery system not only lacks support for the family caregiver, there is little to no education given, to deal with the issues caregivers face.

Many caregivers role includes, but is not limited to:

• Managing, and many times administering multiple medications, including injections and IVs.
• Providing wound care and other nursing procedures.
• Maneuvering through the medical delivery system and identifying, arranging and coordinating services and outside support.
• Providing transportation or arranging transportation to medical appointments and other community services.
• Communicating with health care professionals as they monitor their family member’s chronic medical conditions. They also alert the health care professionals to acute medical conditions their family member may be experiencing.
• Becoming “advocates” for their family member during health care visits and hospitalizations.
• Serving as a “health care navigator” during periods of transition, such as from hospital to home.

What we are advocating for

Family Caregivers are the largest pillar of the long term care industry.

Caregivers are now doing the work that was once provided in a hospital setting. They are managing and providing care for a family member with a chronic disease, such as dementia, diabetes or cancer.

Having the resources of an caregiver education hotline 24-hour/7-day-a-week to assist the family caregiver to maneuver the medical delivery system. This would include answering questions regarding immediate health care concerns and issues relating to everyday caregiving issues. This hotline should also offer counseling services, teach coping strategies and even provide skills training for disease-specific medical conditions.

Development of a dementia care management program for family caregivers. Providing care for any type of dementia requires comprehensive interventions that meet the particular needs of each dementia patient. Since every dementia patient presents differently, care plans for each patient need to be specific to that patient.