Caregivers, Have You Been Affected By The Economy?

This note is from the National Family Caregivers Association.  If you fit this profile and are willing to be interviewed, please contact Sherri Snelling at the number listed below.

Dear NFCA Members and Friends-

Evercare, an NFCA corporate partner, and the National Alliance for Caregiving, are conducting a survey to measure the impact of the economic downtown on caregiving families. If you fit any of the profiles below and would be willing to talk with the media about it please contact:

Sherri Snelling

714-226-2252

sherri.snelling@uhc.com

Are you caring for someone over age 18 who has been adversely affected by the recent economic downturn and is struggling financially to continue to cover caregiving costs.  If yes have you experienced any of the following?

>Family Caregivers who have had a change in their work situation (been laid off, cut back on hours or their spouse has been laid off from work) and the cost of caregiving is an added burden hard to continue

>Family Caregivers who have had to move in with their loved one or their loved one has moved in with them to save costs

>Family Caregivers who have been trying to sell their loved one’s home and cannot in this mortgage crisis

>Family Caregivers who are incurring credit card debt, using savings or just struggling to pay bills because they are also covering caregiving costs

If you are a  family caregivers who fit this description (or know one) and would be interested in being contacted by media, please contact Sherri Snelling (contact info above)  before April 6

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Family caregivers typically live under tight financial straits. In fact most of the calls we get on the NFCA HELP line are from family caregivers seeking financial assistance. Please contact us and/or Sherri to tell your story. You can also post it in the Story Project section of the website. https://www.thefamilycaregiver.org/connecting_caregivers/share_your_story.cfm?&CFID=9876962&CFTOKEN=25381308 by clicking here or copying it into your browser.

Suzanne Mintz

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My Life As a Caregiver, One Year Later

It was about this time last year that my daughter, Nichole, and I decided to move Gladys from Nichole’s home in Philly to mine in Atlanta.  It was the beginning of my life as a caregiver.  The first few months were spent making changes to our home to accommodate the needs of an aging stroke survivor with dementia and severe arthritis.

One of the changes that is not listed below is that I have become more sensitive to the needs of the elderly, especially those without family or friends to help them.  I often wonder what would have happened to Gladys if my family didn’t take care of her.

Family changes since becoming caregivers:

• Most nights I’m up at 1:30 AM and again at 4:30 AM to check on or assist Gladys
• Since Gladys has diabetes and high blood pressure, I cook more.
• There’s a lot of medicine to dispense twice a day (10 prescriptions plus over the counter medicines)
• I pick up a different prescription at least once a week (all the pharmacy people know me by name)
• I’m eating healthier but gaining weight
• Tuesday through Friday, I get Gladys up at 6:30 AM to get her ready to leave for Adult Day Care by 9:00 AM
• I have to bathe Gladys and help her dress
• We have two cats now instead of one.  We got a cat for Gladys but the cats don’t get along
• Errands, meetings and doctors appointments have to be scheduled around Gladys’ schedule
• I get headaches trying to understand Medicare
• Fred and I don’t go out often because we need someone to stay with Gladys
• Laundry almost every other day due to night time accidents
• I am more patient

When I talk with other caregivers, these changes are minor compared to how life has changed for them.  Gladys has dementia but not to the point that she misplaces or hides things and we can’t find them.  She’s pretty easy to get along with and she’s usually pleasant.  A lot of caregivers have to deal with combative parents and grandparents.

I am very thankful for the amount of help and support I get from my husband, Fred and daughter, Anita.  I’m absolutely certain that life would be much different if it wasn’t for their assistance.  We don’t know what the future has in store, we just try to roll with the punches.

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New Caregivers’ Exhaustion – Down But Not Out!

When Gladys first arrived to live with us, I was not quite prepared for the exhaustion I was about to experience.  It was much like when I brought my oldest daughter home from the hospital 35 years ago.  I was constantly checking on her, I could hear every movement and sound that seemed different coming from her room.

The first week Gladys was here, I slept with the baby monitor by my bed turned up fairly high so I could hear if Gladys needed help.  Unfortunately, I could also hear every move, every snore and every fly buzzing over the lamp.  I bet I ran up and down those three flights of stairs at least six or seven times each night.  By the third day I was exhausted, both physically and mentally and it didn’t help when Gladys fell out of the bed that first week.  Fortunately, she was not injured.

Nikki kept telling me to turn the monitor off and go to sleep, that Gladys would be OK.  She said when Gladys first came to live with her that she did the same thing until a nurse friend of her’s told her to turn the monitor off.  I heard what Nikki was saying but I was afraid that Gladys would need help and no one would hear her, especially since Gladys is on the ground floor and we sleep on the third floor.  At Nikki’s house when all was quiet, she could actually hear into Gladys’ room because she was only one flight up.

Gladys has been here now for two months.  The baby monitor is still on but it is turned down and I have become immune to irrelevant noises.  I do hear Gladys when she needs help and I go downstairs to assist her.  Most nights I also go down to her room at least once to make sure she’s not too close to the edge of the bed.  I’m sleeping better and am not exhausted – tired – but not exhausted.

I know I’m not the only person to experience this but I wonder how other people handle similar situations?

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