Caregiver Stress

There are a variety of reasons why a caregiver may feel stressed as they care for those they love. In fact, 36% of those who care for someone in their family would describe their situation as highly stressful. (1) It is easy to understand why! There is a lot that goes into providing aging life care. When combined with other responsibilities that a caregiver has in their personal life, it can feel overwhelming.

Some things that may cause stress for caregivers include:

• physical exertion

• emotional demands

• prioritizing care

• lack of privacy

• feeling solely responsible

Physical Exertion

There is significant physical work required by caregivers. You are now responsible for assisting your loved one with most aspects of their daily life. This can include bathing, dressing, cooking, and getting around the house. You are also responsible for managing medications and taking them to appointments.

Emotional Demands

Geriatric care for a loved one is a huge undertaking not only because of the physical exertion but also because of the emotional demands. The process of understanding and making decisions for daily

Prioritizing Care

When providing care management, caregivers must consider the needs of the person they are providing care for with the rest of their family and themselves. With this balancing act, caregivers can often feel like they are not giving enough attention to each person. They may also feel guilty taking a moment for themselves.

Lack of Privacy

Many caregivers are either providing care all day or are always “on-call”, never having a moment completely to themselves without fear of interruption. Caregivers may feel as though they have lost their sense of privacy because they rarely have any alone time .

Feeling Solely Responsible

The feeling of isolation can be common for caregivers. Sometimes caregivers may feel that all the responsibility for caring for their loved one has fallen onto their shoulders. In this case, they may resent and become frustrated with their family or others for not offering help.

Caregiver Stress

Caregivers often suffer from fatigue, guilt, and discouragement. Over a prolonged period, this can negatively impact both the body and mind.

Some signs of caregiver stress or burden include:

• anxiety

• frustration or anger towards your loved one

• frequent illness

• exhaustion

• inability to concentrate

• moodiness

• social withdrawal

• sleeplessness

It is important to remember that when it comes to providing aging life care or other forms of care management, you first need to take care of yourself. You will not be able to provide the care that you know your loved one deserves if you are experiencing the above signs of caregiver stress.

At Long Life Care Management, we are here to help you with chronic care management, transitional care management, and geriatric care management so that you can breathe a little easier. Let us help you reduce the stress so that you can go back to simply enjoying the company of your loved one.

Schedule Your FREE Consultation TODAY to find out how we can help relieve your stress while caring for a loved one.