A member of the BSN support group directed me to an article in the Los Angeles Times explaining one view of the value of caregiver support groups. The article addresses caregiver stress and topics discussed at support group meetings. The reporter interviews Patti Davis, daughter of Ronald Reagan. Reagan was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Though this article focuses on Alzheimer’s caregivers, very little of the information is limited to the Alzheimer’s world.
See www.latimes.com/health/la-he-patti-davis-alzheimers-support-20160416-story.html
You’re taking care of someone with Alzheimer’s, but who is taking care of you?
by Rene Lynch
April 16, 2016
Los Angeles Times
Here’s one short excerpt: “Caregiver stress is a very real thing. … The caregivers are the ones that worry about the future and worry about the past and worry about the present. They’re constantly worrying about finances, what is going to happen next, it never lets up. But they feel like, ‘I don’t have the disease, I’m not entitled to the attention.’ They start to feel less important, less significant. On an airplane, when they give you the lecture about the oxygen mask, you’re told to put on your own mask first before you help a young child or the elderly or the disabled. And I use that analogy a lot. Caregivers have to take care of themselves first. They are entitled to have their feelings understood and nurtured and discussed.”
Robin