Giving care to an Alzheimer's Patient can be a very wearing, stressful and emotional process. Any Caregivers should therefore consider from the outset, the extra pressure, stress and emotional burden that they are about to encounter and the extreme affect it can sometimes have. These risks need to be properly assessed and plans put in place to mitigate the high risk factors in order to preserve your own health and sometimes your own sanity. This is not just for your own good. It is also in the best interests of the Alzheimer's Patient. Look at it this way: Can you really give the best service as a caregiver if you need emotional help yourself?
The most important factor is to maintain as normal a life style for yourself as you possibly can. Yes this will be affected by the (sometimes unpredictable) needs of your patient, but you must try to maintain normal eating habits and above all continue to program your own timetable to give yourself proper exercise in some form. In addition do not give up on simple pastimes that give you your moments of private pleasure, whether that be ten minutes listening to the radio or a reading good authors latest work. Finding time to fit these in is as important to both of you as the direct caring you give the patient. Maintain the your own quality of life and you will better maintain the quality of the patient's over all care.
To do your best as a caregiver therefore, you must identify and then find the sort of care support you, yourself, will need. Where do you find this support? - Well, the good news is that there are many public service, charity and also private organizations available from which you can obtain the necessary information, understanding and ongoing direct support. Direct support can come by way of help in domestic chores as well as active support in giving care to the patient. None of us should be isolated in this life, and one of the best support resources is often our family and close friends. If you can build up an ongoing pool of friends, family and other helpers on behalf of both yourself and your patient, then you will have by far the best chance of beating the challenges ahead of you.
As always, a properly thought out plan makes life so much easier for those involved. So assess your own strengths and weaknesses that you will bring to care giving and compare these to the needs and temperament of the patient. Where there is no, or very little match, that is were you will need to call upon outside support. At this point it helps to sit down and make a list of individuals, organizations and any other source of help you have included in your support network and record against each name the type of support (and to what extent) they have committed to give you. In this way, you will know immediately where to turn at any time in the future, when some apparent disaster or unforeseen happening throws you off your normal stable approach to care giving.
As a caregiver, the emotional strain and stress will eventually take its toll. Although much more subjective than the need for direct physical help, it is actually the most important area where you need an understanding support network in place. The mental effort expended in dealing with an Alzheimer's patient change in moods, abilities and cognizance of their situation will gradually grind away at your defences like some God-given slow water torture. Your pent up emotions will need someway, somewhere, somehow to be released. This is where your support network, however constituted, will come into it's own. In addition it is well worthwhile seeking out one or more of the specialised support groups to be found in your local area that are totally committed to supporting those caregivers involved with Alzheimer's Disease patients. Whatever you do, do not allow yourself to become the only person bearing the weight of responsibility as caregiver for your patient.
One well known outside support agency is The Alzheimer's Society. Any caregiver to an Alzheimer's patient should have them at the top of their list. Here you will find advice on how to help your patient through the day to day ravages of the disease, how to approach the task of being a care giver, where to obtain further resources and most importantly they offer direct telephone support to you at any time.
No comments:
Post a Comment