New Study says Family Caregivers are undervalued

I doubt if there are any family caregivers or recipients out there that will be surprised by the findings of a new study done by AARP's Public Policy Institute that found that, were family caregivers in just Connecticut had been paid for their work as caregivers for 2009, they would have made around... $8,150 each.

Now mind you, that is 711,000 unpaid caregivers in JUST Connecticut that are providing care to a parent, family member or friend. Nationwide the report determined that family caregivers providing care to their loved ones in 2009 lost an estimated $450 billion dollars in income.

In 2009 the estimated value per hour for care was calculated by AARP to be $11.16 an hour. This is what a stranger would have been paid to provide the same services for one hour. I know that when I took care of my father, I would have accepted $5 an hour for the hours that I provided caregiver assistance to him - but as his daughter, it was assumed by every agency and medical provider I spoke to that I would just provide care to him for no compensation - despite the fact that they would have paid a stranger to care for him. Something that both him and my mother did not want.

Thankfully, my father was a 21 year veteran of the Army and had attained full Social Security benefits by the time he retired, so by the time him and my mom required care they owned their own house where I was able to live with them, supplementing their income through my work as a freelance writer.

Not all family caregivers have the same situation I had, far too many are attempting to care for a loved one, often one that has significant special needs, who has little or no disability or Social Security benefits, on what income the care provider can manage to make in their part time. On that small income they are attempting to provide for their family, pay a mortgage or rent, and still keep the bills paid. It is an impossible task that leaves people that had thought they had saved for their future slipping slowly toward debt.

In an article at ctpost.com, Brenda Kelley, the State director of AARP Connecticut, is quoted as saying:

"If the caregivers in this country fell apart, then our long-term care system would fall apart -- because, that is our long-term care system,"

And yet,companies such as Johnson & Johnson focus their kudos on those in the nursing career. After having been a family caregiver, I consider the unpaid caregivers to be the real heroes of the care system.

Water and Proper Hydration Concerns?

Do you really have to make sure that your care recipient drinks eight full glasses of water every day?

The simple answer? Probably not unless their doctor says that you do. And even then, it might be less water than you expect.

An average sized drinking glass out of my kitchen cabinet holds 1 2/3 cups of water, with one cup being 8 ounces. So a standard glass of water is almost two servings out of the 8 servings recommended to keep properly hydrated.

Drink 5 water glasses full of water in a day, or 5 bottles of water, and you most likely have drank your recommended allotment of water for the day. But it is not even that simple, since the water does not all have to come from clear water. That tea your mother had with breakfast can count towards water intake. Yes, the tea and lemon and sugar all change it a bit, but there is still water needed for remaining hydrated in the cup of tea.

Water intake needs vary based on many factors, and on how much water is in the things we eat or drink. If you are concerned about keeping your care recipient properly hydrated then you should consult their primary care physician to find out how their hydration levels are doing and to advise you on the proper plan for dietary and water intake. Something that not many people consider is that too much water can also be a danger under the wrong circumstances, so if you have concerns about hydration in your loved one ask about it the next time you accompany them to the doctor's office.

How to create a caregiver book

When I was taking care of my dad there came a point where one of my sisters was to take care of him for a few weeks until my mom and I drove a car out the Al-Can to pick up my dad at my sister's place and go for a trip with him in the Lower 48.

Before my sister took my dad, I created a small booklet on the computer that she could take and read so that she was up to speed on what she needed to know about his dietary restrictions and his medications and what to expect from him as she took care of him for a few weeks.

The care only lasted almost a week, but the creation of the caregiver booklet is something that I think any caregiver should consider for when they have someone else taking care of a loved one.

Basically it was a letter from me explaining what the booklet was for.
A page on what my dad liked to eat for snacks.
Information on what he could not eat because of medications or other dietary restrictions.
Some information that was specific to taking care of him, such as how he preferred to be assisted when he transferred from bed to wheelchair and similar things.
A list of what he enjoyed watching on television, and what radio show he liked to listen to as he went to bed at night - with a note that he slept better if he had a nightlight and the radio was left on overnight rather than turned off.

I also included information on his contact information for his primary physician and a basic health history that covered things that might be asked by a hospital, just in case.
A list of what dad's medications were along with information on dosage and what each medication was for.
With that was a standing order from his doctor for a lab test on a few medications that needed their levels monitored by a lab.

Add in a timeline of what can be expected for a few days worth of average care and my sister was armed with everything I could think of that she might need while taking care of our dad.

Even if someone is not taking care of your loved one, I would suggest making up a small booklet that can be kept in an easy to find place so that if something does happen and you need to spend a little time in the hospital or have to go somewhere and leave someone else providing the care you normally provide, you don't have to spend precious time explaining things. The stand-in caregiver can be left a handbook specific to your loved one.

No matter how bad it seems. You are not in this alone

There are times when family can just drive you completely insane. I'm talking about those times such as when something trivial causes a rift within a family, or a misunderstanding will start an argument that spirals out of control. These are universal things that every family has to deal with, but when they impact the care of a loved one it is particularly difficult to take.

A search of Google quickly brings up a large number of results that concern family stress and caregivers. A couple of examples of common issues in these articles are old arguments that crop back up - even from childhood rivalries or issues that arise from the division of tasks in caring for a relative. There might be different points of view on what is best for the care recipient, where the children of an elderly woman might be divided in their feelings about providing care at home vs placement of her in a retirement home - even if it is against her will.

These are only a very few of the things that can cause strife in a family, and the main thing I want to convey here is - whatever is happening, however hard it seems to be, chances are, somewhere out here, there is another caregiver that has, is or will face the same kind of issues that you are facing at the moment. My only advice... grab a diary and pour your heart out into it. Or hop on the phone or a chat program and pour your heart out to your closest friends. If you need someone that can talk to you and understand the issues you are facing from a similar perspective then you might look around online for caregiver forums or support groups. Shared stories can go a long way toward shared healing.

Exercise Possibilities

I have got to thinking about things that my dad and I could do together, and I realized that I was missing out on something that we have the ability to do now that we have finally got dependable transportation.

We are going to start driving as far as the local paved bike trails and then hike along them with him in his wheelchair and me walking. We can take the dogs along with us for moose protection (or is that moose fodder?), and hike for so long, then back to the car. A fifteen minute walk in one direction would be a total of a 30 minute walk for me, occasionally pushing the wheelchair uphill at slight inclines, so the thing will add to the workout I get.

And we can start training Bear to be a chair pulling dog, so he can assist me with the hills. Maybe teach him and Shy to pull the chair together, but she's still interested more in grabbing him by the scruff of the neck and coaxing him to wrestle, so that might not be a good idea.

Eldercare Abuse in Nursing Homes

By now you should all know that I detest nursing homes. It is not the idea of a nursing home that I dislike so much, I actually adore the idea of seniors having the option to live somewhere where everyone is in their age range and where they have someone looking out for them 24-7-365. Unfortunately in my experience that is not the case in the nursing homes I have had personal interaction with.

It downright sickens me when I read something such as a recent article from Parade Magazine about Protecting the Elderly From Abuse in which the lead example of abuse was a 90-year-old grandmother who, in 2006, was raped by a worker at the nursing home where she lived. As scary as that was, it paled in the shadow of the next sentence: "Similar incidents over the years..."

Say WHAT?!

Now, if that is not enough for you to reconsider trusting your loved one to a nursing home, read a little further into the article and you find that in seven states, 7,000 applicants for eldercare positions had violent criminal records or a substantiated history of abuse. I have no idea just how many applications there were in those states (or even which seven states they looked at), but I can tell you that it scares me to think that 7,000 of those who applied for eldercare positions were the kind who would abuse or injure the very people we entrust to their care.

And there are no laws in place that would force screening for eldercare applicants. They screen those who want to work with children, so why not screen those who are applying for an eldercare position?