Assessing a family's need
There are different phases in an older parents’ life. These phases have individual impacts on the caregiver’s system. The phases might be classified as the physical, the psychological, and the spiritual phases.
The physical side of an elder in the family chiefly concerns the general physiological problems, which accompany old age. Diseases like cancer could affect the older parent. There could be attacks of chronic pain, dementia, and Alzheimer's disease. These often result in great economical stress for the family with the budget allocations changing. A significant amount of time in the daily schedule of the caregiver would be allotted to regular visits to the physician, or helping the parent to avail of and use the recommended medications, and other forms of help to be rendered. These cause a shift in the lifestyle of the caregiver. Often there are associated problems with medication, which range from depression to insomnia and other mental stability losses.
The needs of an ailing older parent in the family are ever expanding. The family members are now responsible to extend all sorts of physical and psychological support to the elder. Often the other members of the family turn to the primary caregiver when they are to deal with the ongoing crises of the elder. This is a faulty practice as pressure builds up with the caregiver to deal with all such problems all by her self. An ideal way of dealing with this is when the other members realize that extra pressure on the primary caregiver is only going to add to her burden. Thus they could split up the workload and deal with a few things concerning the ailing elder themselves.
The sibling(s) of the primary caregiver could often fill in the blanks for them when they are executing the role of the caregiver. The sibling(s) could tend to the needs of the children in the house, take them to school maybe, and baby-sit them if necessary. Or else they could simply share the caregiver’s responsibility by taking the older members to the hospital or physician’s, doing the running around to pay the bills of the older member- taxes they often have to pay. Such sharing of activities definitely mitigates the strain on the primary caregiver and gives him/her some breathing space.
There is a psychological phase too, which primarily concerns the mental well-being and stability of the older member. He/she is waking up to the fact that this is gradually going set to be the last stage of his/her life. Moreover there might be new ailments on their way every day keeping the older member wary of all such days to come. Such thoughts are perfect recipe for depression, anxiety. Caregivers have to assume the role of the counselor here and listen to everything the older member has to say. He/she has to take care of him/her after being informed about his/her ailments and keep him in a state of occupation always to avoid the bouts of depression. This is easier said than done so often one might have to take to professional medical or psychiatric help to counter this. Often, communication on regular basis helps in reducing the psychiatric ailments of the older member also effectively helping him/her to gel with the family.
The spiritual phase is often intrinsic to the life of the elder in the family. Now it might be a part of caregiving to participate in all activities practiced by the elder to redeem his/her spiritual life. This is not only reassuring for the older member but the caregiver’s family by taking part, often manages to strengthen family ties within the family. Loss struck or grief struck families can perhaps put such spiritual exercises to good effect. A general cohesion is generated with the older member concerned too.
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