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Caregiver[/caption]Carol Forsloff----Maria Shriver has been in the media many times recently, underlining the needs of Alzheimer's patients, offering this group as an example of those individuals who need caregiving. Virtually all of us require emotional or physical assistance at some time in our lives, and as the population ages those needs will only increase experts remind us.
US News and World Report's Tom Sightings writes that as baby boomers age, most worry about their future security and what limitations they may have in retaining quality of life. They wonder what options exist for aging in place. Caregiving is something many of us will require, or do, in some form. It is a service of the heart that can make a positive difference for those who need safety and support at critical life junctures.
Those with disabilities resulting from age, accident or disease are the ones most often needing care-giving. And it is a process of support that begins first with an assessment of a patient's needs and ends when an individual is able to be self-sufficient or some other resolution is made to provide needed assistance. Caregiver help can therefore be short or long term.
The intial assessment for caregiving includes observation and documentation of the details about an individual specific to personal care needs. It also includes a review of the environment, the home, and the support systems. After the assessment is done, services are targeted specifically for that person's special concerns.
The one who offers caregiver help is one who offers not just physical and emotional support for a patient but is a listener who assists in finding the approach most suitable for the individual needing care. This often means following a plan that is written either by the one rendering care or a life care planning nurse or counselor. It is that listening, observing, and taking the time to learn about each person's unique set of circumstances that allows services to be appropriate.
Many times family members find they have neither the time nor the skills to render the help a loved one may need. That's when a professional caregiver can be called. Those who render these services have the training and expertise to follow a life care plan, family directives or doctor's orders for the range of services can be broad enough to include everything from household help to bedside care.
For those with mental health issues, caregiving can be stressful. In fact it can be so stressful that it can cause breakdowns in the family, both individually and collectively. It is then professional caregiver help is of particular value for the family and the patient as well. That's because the caregiver does not have the emotional involvement of a family member or some friend whose personal concerns can be heightened during crises. The caregiver is trained to know what to do and when to do it, so some of the burden of decisions and hands-on service can be lifted, allowing respite for those who can become so overworked and stressed during the care of the patient to be unable to function optimally in the care of the patient.
More than five million Americans now live with Alzheimer's disease, a disease that is the one most feared by the elderly. Statistics indicate one in three people over age 80 will suffer from this disease. Dementia robs the person of memory and ability to do some of the simple, everyday tasks. During the early stages of the disease, it is possible for many individuals to be cared for in the home. Care-givers can either supplement family help or be the front-line assistance in observing function and helping determine when to take the next step, which might mean sending the family having to move a loved one to a specialized residence designed for the care of those in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's disease.
Maria Shriver, daughter of Sergeant Shriver and his wife Eunice Kennedy, saw her father's decline, as he suffered from Alzheimer's disease. Despite the money in the family and all the resources, Shriver said the emotional cost was almost intolerable. She said, “In the beginning, I know I definitely felt overwhelmed on more days than not. And I have the financial resources to hire people to help and to get the best doctors. I kept thinking, if I'm struggling here, and I have the financial resources and a flexible job, I can only imagine what everyone else does.”
That emotional toll can cast a heavy shadow on the family and on relationships. The caregiver brings the compassion, knowledge and support that allows the family members to carry on normal activities without always having to worry about what might happen next and how they will be able to handle the multiple demands required by those in declining health.
The nurse at the bedside in the final moments of life is that final symbol of caregiving, representing the point of light that exists in work that comes from the heart. Sometimes it is the caregiver, nurse, nurse's aid or companion, who holds the hand of a dying person and listens, watches and serves compassionately. And science tells us that caregiving helps transitioning not just from one stage of our physical life to another stage, but in that transition at death to alleviate the fear folks, especially single women, often have about dying alone.
Caregiving is a vocation of the highest calling; and when we need help ourselves, it's nice to know there are those who can offer it with knowledge and compassion. Caregiving is that job of the heart that answers the needs of all of us at some time in our lives.
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Carol Forsloff, a trained and experienced journalist, worked as a counselor, and managed a counseling company over 20 years. Her specialty in the years before retirement was life care planning, which involved the direct interface with caregivers. She says that first-hand relationship with caregiver and patient inspired admiration for the profession of caregiving, as she, like her friend Ann Blair, a hospice nurse, defines it as a vocation of the heart.