It is important as a caregiver that you stay healthy physically and emotionally strong. You must visit your doctor at least once a year and watch for stress levels, exhaustion, and sleeplessness. Getting a yearly flu shot and being vaccinated are also helpful. In addition, do not try to do everything alone but get help from your family members. Further, exercise is very beneficial to relieve stress and prevent disease. You should get 30 minutes of exercise at least 5 days a week and even 10 minutes a day for the other 2 days. In addition, you can also take your patient on short walks, dance together, and do seated exercises.
Dr. John den Boer Essential Tips
These are 4 tips for caregivers to cope with their patients:
- Manage stress
- Be realistic
- Take breaks
- Accept changes as you care for your patient
Suggestion For Caregivers
If you are a caregiver you can find great information on The Alzheimer’s Association’s website on early-stage caregiving. However, in these early stages, you can work with the person in making decisions about legal, financial, and long-term care. Further, care partners can also be dementia patient’s relatives, friends, or neighbours. In addition, carers need to support their clients by having strategies to cope with bathing, dressing, and a daily schedule. These are some more suggestions by Dr. John de Boer to carers:
- Safety first
- Avoid stress
- Be positive
- Decide on a “help” signal
- Talk over their needs
- Work well together
Provide Emotional Support
Choose ways to keep dementia patients independent. Also, carers must provide emotional support to their patients. Some emotions that dementia patients might encounter are denial, fear, frustration, and depression. So caregivers can help the person stay healthy for as long as possible by doing some physical activity, prepare meals that are low in fat and high in vegetables, have a good daily schedule, and be aware of situations that might be highly stressful.
Risk of Being a Caregiver
The Mayo Clinic in their article for Healthy Lifestyles gives some very good signs of caregiver stress and strategies on how to deal with these problems. A third of individuals in the United States act as informal (not paid) caregivers for adult people. Caregiving can be rewarding, but it is common to have feelings of frustration and exhaustion.
Risk factors for caregivers include the following:
- Female
- Fewer years of education
- Living with your client
- The higher number of hours
- Difficulty solving problems
- No choice
In addition, if the caregiving is constantly worrisome, not getting enough sleep, losing interest, having frequent headaches, or alcohol abuse it can really harm your health.
How Can Caregivers Reduce Stress?
Caregivers can reduce their stress in a variety of ways.
- Carers can accept help from friends,
- set good goals, and
- find caregiving resources in your community such as meal delivery, transportation, or join a support group.
Respite Therapy
Respite can be beneficial. Carers must take rest and go to adult care centres, and short-term nursing homes.
Conclusion
Many caregivers have trouble asking for help. There are many local resources that are very helpful. The best idea is to contact your Area Agency On Aging (AAA) to ask what services are available. Thus, caring for a loved one tests even the most resilient individuals.