Page 16 - Delaware Medical Journal - September/October 2018
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RESOURCE GUIDE
AARP Delaware: www.local.aarp.org/wilmington-de
Delaware Division of Aging Guide to Services www.delawareadrc.com/ADRCSearch/Search.aspx
Division of Aging referral form: This form is designed for use by staff in hospitals, nursing homes, or other organizations to refer individuals to the Delaware Aging and Disability Resource Center (ADRC): https://saas.harmonyis.net assessments/?deploymentId=92286&form=S%3A%5COmnia %5CAssessment%20Forms%5CProfessional%20Referral.afm
Cheer Community Center: Multiple services; food, transportation, Meals on Wheels, errands/grocery pick-up: www.cheerde.com
Council on Deaf & Hard of Hearing Equality (CODHHE): https://codhhe.delaware.gov
Faith in Action: Volunteer caregivers who help keep chronically ill, disabled, and elderly Delawareans independent www.deccf.org/faith-in-action
Greater Lewes Community Village: www.greaterlewescommunityvillage.org
Modern Maturity Center: www.modern-maturity.org
Jewish Family Services of Delaware: www.jfsdelaware.org Lutheran Community Services: www.lcsde.org
AdvoConnection Directory: Assistance with medical billing www.advoconnection.com/advocate-locations/delaware
may produce a satisfactory sense of accomplishing an important duty and can consequently result in the development and nurturing of greater self-esteem. Caregiving may therefore produce caregiver.3,7,8
There are potential problems, though, with the work done by informal training in caregiving. The skills of the
relationships and reduced effectiveness of the caregiving plan. The caregiver may resent feeling pressured or coerced to be a caregiver. The caregiver may also suffer a loss of income as she works for hours each week with the recipient.
For these and other reasons, the family caregiver may feel highly stressed — unsure she is doing the right thing, concerned she is untrained, frustrated with perceived unresponsiveness of formal caregivers and the complexities of the health system, and worried that her own career and, for that matter, health
may suffer.3,8,9 There may be particular stress around transitions — e.g., when a caregiver must cease caregiving because the recipient’s condition becomes more complex and care demands increase
or the recipient eventually dies. More generalized population and policy changes could also have adverse effects, especially if care demands rise with
our aging population and state and federal agencies fail to adequately caregivers.
Early studies of caregiver duress, focused on dementia caregiving,
found that dementia caregivers were prone to medical and psychological sequelae, such as increased rates of insomnia, depression, and anxiety and musculoskeletal problems, as well as increased mortality. As a consequence, tended to depict family caregiving as harmful for caregivers. However, more recent studies have found that most caregiving and even some positive health effects.3 This is particularly true if the caregiver has strong convictions that she
is “doing the right thing” regardless of
may entail. A more nuanced view today of the effects of caregiving recognizes that most caregivers experience some stress, but only a minority of them are highly stressed to the point that they are at risk for adverse health consequences.
SUPPORT
Support for caregivers has been demonstrated to be helpful for managing caregiver duress and fostering greater resilience.3,8,9
Support may come in many forms. Other family members and friends
may be directly supportive by taking
a turn as caregiver or by sharing some of the responsibilities — e.g., driving the recipient to the doctor or physical therapy appointments. Respite care
for the caregiver by family and friends is also believed to be helpful. The provision of training in caregiving skills (e.g., doling out medications, physical transfers, completing insurance forms) seems to give caregivers a greater sense
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Del Med J | September/October 2018 | Vol. 90 | No. 7
