General advice for caregivers

Caregivers are those who take care of someone - such as a parent, spouse, sibling or child - with a chronic illness or disease. Caregivers often provide emotional as well as physical support to the chronically ill and the job can be very taxing. Caregiver stress levels can run very high and there is a real danger of the caregiver also becoming ill if they do not take care of themselves. The tips below may help caregivers to balance their critically important caregiving role with their own health and well being.

Take care of your own health

It is critical to remember to take care of your own health as well as the health of the person you are caring for. Caregivers are at greater risk for contracting infectious disease than the general public. This is probably due both to the stress that being a caregiver entails, which can reduce the effectiveness of the immune system, and to a lack of time in a busy caregiver’s life to devote to one’s own health.

If someone is dependent on you for regular care, when you get sick both of you will suffer. Keeping up with your vaccinations and having yearly physical examinations and other appropriate medical surveillance (e.g. mammograms, prostate exams) are two things you can do to keep yourself healthy.

Depression is twice as common among caregivers as non-caregivers. While it is normal to feel down sometimes when taking care of a sick relative, it is important to pay special attention to your mood and seek out medical advice if you start to have symptoms of clinical depression. For example, if you find you are losing interest in the things you normally enjoy the most, or getting angry for no reason, or if you are avoiding friends and loved ones, you may want to see a doctor to be screened for depression.

Take time for yourself

Caregivers often have the responsibility of employment in addition to the large amounts of time spent caring for their patients. You should try to take some time for yourself every day. That doesn’t mean you need to watch a three hour movie; sometimes a hot bath is enough, as long as you have some respite from the day where the only person you are focused on is you. This can do wonders for your emotional well being.

Get some exercise

Physical activity often gets neglected when caregiving. Finding time to exercise, even for just twenty minutes a day, can help you maintain your physical health.

Eat healthy

When people are busy they tend to eat more fast food and junk food, or to skip meals entirely. However, even a little effort can improve your eating habits dramatically. Buy breakfast foods that you can eat on the go. Get fruits and vegetables to eat as snacks - they are affordable and portable. Try to make dinner at home. If you don’t have time to make dinner, get takeout or delivery from a restaurant that has healthy menu options.

Learn how to manage stress

Learning how to manage stress can be difficult, but it can make all the difference for your own health. Stay in touch with your friends and family members. If you need to, ask them for help giving care. Asking for help doesn’t make you a failure; it just means you know your own limits.

Find caregiver resources in your area

Finding support is critical to sustaining yourself as a caregiver. Sharing your experiences with others in a similar situation, or hearing how other people deal with the same challenges that you face can help you gain perspective. See “Core Resources” for links to some caregiver organizations.

Weight management-specific issues for caregivers

Unlike taking care of someone with a specific disease, caretaking of someone who is trying to reach a healthy weight does not necessarily involve managing symptoms or looking out for acute disease flare ups. Taking care of someone who needs to manage their weight requires emotional support and practical help with their transition to a new, healthier lifestyle. These changes usually need to be permanent so you can help by making some of these long term changes yourself.

Weight loss

When patients are asked to lose weight, the doctor will usually recommend changes to the patient’s diet and to their activity level, often including increased exercise. Helping a patient stick to their diet and exercise regimen is critical to their overall success. It is very difficult for anyone to make major lifestyle changes without the help of loved ones and others close to them. One way to ensure adherence to a restricted diet is to prepare meals for the patient. If this is not feasible, you can try to limit the amount of forbidden foods that are present in the patient’s home. Also, a little encouragement can go a long way. If possible, you can even stick to the diet with them.

If the patient needs to stick to a prescribed diet made up of specific foods or one that contains a specific number of calories, you can help them to log their meals in a journal. If you take the time to learn the calorie content of common foods and the appropriate portion sizes, you can help them make smart choices about what and how often to eat.

The level of exercise requested of a patient will depend on their overall health, but for many patients frequent walks or runs are beneficial. If you have time to accompany them, it will make the experience more enjoyable and will increase adherence. The same is true of more strenuous exercise: if you do it together you will both reap the health benefits. If you join a gym together, it increases the likelihood that both of you will go.

Make it easier to change

Change can be difficult, especially major lifestyle changes like those required for overweight or obese patients. You can make it easier by helping the patient create a specific plan with goals for change and benchmarks to help them gauge their progress along the way. Help them stay on track by gently reminding them about what to do, encouraging their efforts, and celebrating the goals and milestones with them. You can also help them decide on ways to reward themselves that do not involve food.

Medication management

If someone is obese and has trouble losing weight, the doctor may prescribe them medications to help with their weight loss. As a caregiver, you should have a system to make sure that the patient takes his or her medications when and how they are supposed to be taken. You can use alarms or timers to remind them when to take each and weekly pill dispensers to make sure they only take the dose that is prescribed. You may want to keep a medicine calendar and note every time the patient takes a dose, or have them do it themselves. You may also want to refill prescriptions before the patient runs out, so keep track of the supply of each medicine.

The side effects of many appetite suppressant medications include high blood pressure, rapid heartbeat, and nervousness. As a caregiver, you should watch out for these signs and if you notice any of them, report it to the patient’s doctor as soon as possible.

Emotional support

Perhaps the most important role of a caregiver is providing emotional support. Simply being there to listen to the patient’s concerns and to provide encouragement can keep them on the path toward better health. If you can help the patient find a resource like a support group with people that have similar issues (and there are many), it can provide the patient with some perspective on their condition. It can also provide another source of emotional support and take some of the burden off of you as a caregiver.