Caregiving often creeps up on you. You start by dropping by your mom’s house and doing her laundry, or taking your dad to a doctor’s appointment. You find yourself doing the grocery shopping and refilling prescriptions. Gradually, you are doing more and more. At some point, you realize you have made a commitment to take care of someone else.
Here are some of the common tasks caregivers do:
- Buy groceries, cook, clean house, do laundry, provide transportation
- Help the care receiver get dressed, take a shower, take medicine
- Transfer someone out of bed/chair, help with physical therapy, perform medical interventions—injections, feeding tubes, wound treatment, breathing treatments
- Arrange medical appointments, drive to the doctor, sit in during appointments, monitor medications
- Talk with doctors, nurses, care managers, and others to understand what needs to be done
- Spend time handling crises and arranging for assistance—especially for someone who cannot be left alone
- Handle finances and other legal matters
- Be a companion
- Be a (usually) unpaid aide, on call 24/7
Family Caregiver Alliance (FCA) shares this valuable information about self-identifying as a Caregiver in an audio article available on their website.
https://www.caregiver.org/caregiving-101-being-caregiver
For residents of the greater San Francisco Bay Area, FCA provides direct support services for caregivers of those with Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, traumatic brain injury, Parkinson’s, and other debilitating health conditions that strike adults.
To subscribe to their updates, click here. And to learn more about resources near you, find your local Caregiver Resource Center.
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