Caregiving
From Life Done Right SeniorWiki
Caregiving is the act of providing support to individuals who are no longer capable of following through on daily living activities like preparing food, cleaning the house, driving, or maintaining their finances. Caregivers are placed in the role of helping individuals on a daily basis in order to ensure they remain health, safe and secure in their home or living environment. Caregivers include anyone who provides this support either professionally or through a network of family, friends or local support groups. Caregivers need to recognize that the act of caregiving can take a toll on their own well-being and take the appropriate steps to maintain their own health. Caregiving often reverses the role of parent to child, making the parent now dependent on their grown children for support and sustenance.
The aging of the U.S. population has heightened interest in designing efficient and effective systems for delivering health and related services to older people. Developing service networks to provide older people and their caregivers with a continuum of home- and community-based long-term care has become especially important, in order to better meet their support needs and preferences for independence.
Family caregivers provide the vast majority of the assistance that enables older people to live independently in their homes and communities. Caregivers include grandparents raising grandchildren, as well as those who help older Americans. In many cases, both the caregivers and care recipients are aging adults. Many are women. Family caregivers face substantial stresses and burdens as a consequence of caregiving obligations. Prolonged caregiving can adversely affect one’s physical and psychological health, current and future employment status and earning capability, ability to balance the needs of older parents and younger family members, and the ability to meet personal needs. Because caregivers play such an important role, services that sustain a caregiver’s role and maintain their emotional and physical health are an important component of any home and community-based care system.
External Links
- National Family Caregiver Support Program (NFCSP)
- National Alliance for Caregiving
- Family Caregiving 101
- Family Caregiver Alliance
- National Family Caregivers Association
- Caregiver's Home Companion
- Medline Plus Caregivers
Related Books
- If Only I'd Had This Caregiving Book by Maya Hennessey
- The Fearless Caregiver: How to Get the Best Care for Your Loved One and Still Have a Life of Your Own by Gary Barg
- Caregiving: The Spiritual Journey of Love, Loss, and Renewal by Beth Witrogen McLeod
- American Medical Association Guide to Home Caregiving by American Medical Association
- The Caregiver's Essential Handbook : More than 1,200 Tips to Help You Care for and Comfort the Seniors in Your Life by Sasha Carr
- God Knows Caregiving Can Pull You Apart: 12 Ways to Keep it All Together by Gretchen Thompson
- And Thou Shalt Honor: The Caregiver's Companion by Rosalynn Carter
- Christian Caregiving: A Way of Life : Leader's Guide by Kenneth C. Haugk
- To Survive Caregiving: A Daughter's Experience, A Doctor's Advice on Finding Hope, Help and Health by Cheryl, E Woodson
- Caregiving: Hospice-Proven Techniques for Healing Body and Soul by Douglas C. Smith
- The Caregiving Zone by Peggy Flynn
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