Caregivers and Substance Abuse

20 Jan 2017 2 Comments

by Bobbi Carducci in care giving

Being a caregiver is far from easy, especially when the caregiver is responsible for caring for a parent, spouse or family member who is dying from a debilitating illness. Caregivers are often forced to watch their loved ones slowly sink into a deteriorating state of health and to put their own well-being and needs on the backburner to provide care for loved one.

As the population’s average age increases, more and more people who are not health care professionals are required to become primary caregivers for aging and ill loved ones. According to the Mayo Clinic, “informal caregivers provide 80 percent of long-term care in the United States.”

These individuals are almost certain to experience a wide range of emotions, such as anger, frustration, exhaustion and sadness, that can cause a great deal of stress.

According to researchers at the National Institutes of Health, “the caregiver’s burden is complex and complicated by multiple competing priorities. Because caregivers are often faced with multiple concurrent stressful events and extended, unrelenting stress, they may experience negative health effects, mediated in part by immune and autonomic dysregulation.”

As a caregiver’s stress levels go up, they become more susceptible to a number of health issues, including depression and anxiety disorders, compromised physical health and substance use disorders.

Factors That Lead to Caregiver Substance Abuse

Stress and declining mental health are linked to being a caregiver. Caregivers often have no choice in the matter of caring for their loved one and are frequently driven to social isolation and depression.

According to the Family Caregiver Alliance, approximately 25 percent of family caregivers meet the criteria for major depression.

Ninety percent of caregivers say the worry more or feel more stress since beginning to take of their charge, according to the National Alliance for Caregiving.

About 16 percent of caregivers report feeling emotionally strained and 26 percent say that taking care of an individual is emotionally difficult, according to the Family Caregiver Alliance. Approximately 22 percent of caregivers say they are exhausted when they go to sleep at night, and many struggle with their caregiving responsibilities.

For caregivers, drugs and alcohol — including prescription drugs — can be a way to escape stress. Substance abuse becomes a means to cope with their emotions.

According to the Family Caregiver Alliance, “caregivers are shown to have increased alcohol and other substance use.”

More than 51 percent of caregivers report taking more medication as a result of their role as a caregiver. About 10 percent report regularly abusing drugs or alcohol more often, according to the Family Caregiver Alliance.

Tackling Caregiver Substance Abuse

For caregivers, there are steps that can be taken to lighten the pressure they feel and help prevent substance abuse, such as:

  • Assistance: One of the best ways to get out from under the immense stress a caregiver feels is to allow others to help them with their responsibilities. Allowing a friend, family member or neighbor to do simple things such as pick up groceries or cook for the caregiver can make a monumental difference in the amount of stress the caregiver feels.
  • Goals: Caregivers are often asked to handle more responsibility than one person can reasonably take on at one time. Setting realistic daily goals can be a great way to get a hold of the priorities in a caregiver’s life.
  • Find Resources: Many cities and communities have a network of resources to support caregivers in this difficult phase of their lives.
  • Find Peer Support: Support groups for others going through similar situations can be extremely beneficial to caregivers who often feel like they have no one who can relate to what they’re going through.

Sources:

Bevans, M. & Sternberg, E. (2012, January 25). Caregiving Burden, Stress, and Health Effects Among Family Caregivers of Adult Cancer Patients. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3304539/

Family Caregiver Alliance. (n.d.). A Population at Risk. Retrieved from https://www.caregiver.org/caregiver-health

Mayo Clinic. (2015, March 7). Caregiver stress: Tips for taking care of yourself. Retrieved from http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/caregiver-stress/art-20044784

National Alliance for Caregiving. (2006, September). Evercare Study of Caregivers in Decline: A Close-up Look at the Health Risks of Caring for a Loved One. Retrieved from http://www.caregiving.org/data/Caregivers%20in%20Decline%20Study-FINAL-lowres.pdf
Sinha, R. (2008, October). Chronic Stress, Drug Use, and Vulnerability to Addiction. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2732004/

I thank Trey Dyer for this guest post.

About the Author: Trey Dyer is a writer for DrugRehab.com and an advocate for mental health and substance use disorder treatment. When Trey is not writing, he can be found cooking, fishing or playing indoor soccer.

 

What We Have is a Failure to Communicate

18 Jan 2017 Leave a comment

by Bobbi Carducci in care giving Tags: , , , ,

failure-to-communicate

You spend hours, days, weeks, months, years, becoming more and more isolated as caregiving takes over your life. Well intentioned friends and family who offered to help in the beginning drop out of your life as they tend to their own families and jobs.  When they do come to visit they see Mom or Dad on their best behavior. Somehow he or she is able to connect with reality long enough to convince visitors they are so much better than they really are.  They may even accuse you of abusing them or robbing them causing distrust and confusion within the family.

If only your visitors could see your parent beg to go home for hours or cower in fear because they no longer know who you are.

Fortunately there are now ways to make that happen and I encourage you to use them especially if your family members are too far away to visit often. They may not be able to come in and relieve you but they might be able to help in other ways once they see how much you are doing every day.

Don’t let distance keep family in the dark. The more they know the better chance you have that someone will step up to help.

Communication is key, no matter how you make it happen. Use any and all resources available to you including one or more of the ones listed below.

I urge you to take full advantage of video chatting to share your experiences and make it far more difficult for others to say, “I wish I had known how hard it was. I would have been there for you.”

Listed below are a number of resources to keep communication open.

Nucleus

Skype,

FaceTime,

Glide,

Tango, etc.

Email

Phone

Facebook

If you are using, or have used, any of the resources listed above to reach out to family and friends please share your thoughts on how well it works or worked for you. I look forward to hearing from you.

 

A Teen Encourages Others to Help

13 Jan 2017 Leave a comment

by Bobbi Carducci in Dementia, family issues Tags: , ,

The following is a guest post by  Minaal Khan, an 11th grade student at John Champe High School in Aldie, VA.

As teenagers in the age of technology, we need to be less materialistic and spend time with people as well as our favorite devices. People are who make the world a better place and who provide beneficial social interactions. We need to stop ignoring people and start using devices less often. Helping people can make you a better, worldlier person. This will make you truly appreciate the world. Hearing about someone else’s life can inspire you and may even change you for the better.

Teenagers need to start giving back to the community and helping others. We are at the age that will define us as adults. If we do not start giving back now, we will never do it as adults. We need to be thankful that we are healthy and appreciate what the generation before us has done to ensure that we are raised properly. They left us a great world that we can make even better by spreading kindness and selflessness. Everyone deserves to have someone help them when they are in need, so we should be kind and care for people who may have neurocognitive disease.

Caring for people with Alzheimer’s helps you feel accomplished as you do something good in the world. It also reassures the person you were caring for that there is hope and kindness left in our world when so often all we see on the news is violence.

Caregiving is an act of kindness that the other person will remember and builds self-esteem. It does not require you to sacrifice several hours, you can also spend time with your friends or family.

Helping someone who has Alzheimer’s will also help the family of the person who has Alzheimer’s because they will know that someone is taking care of their loved one. They will not have to worry about finding a reliable caretaker which increases the cost of care.

Caregiving is extremely rewarding and can change the lives of many people, the caregiver, the person with Alzheimer’s, and the family of the person with Alzheimer’s. It also gives you a sense of accomplishment because you have made a change in someone’s life. We need to help others as much as we can.

 

4 Reasons People with Dementia Hate to Shower & How to Fix It

08 Jan 2017 1 Comment

by Bobbi Carducci in care giving, Dementia, home health care Tags: , , , , , ,

shower-head

1. You asked: When asked a yes or no question a person with dementia may not understand the question and automatically answer with a resounding NO to avoid agreeing to anything they may not want.

Why? Because it’s one of the first words we learn when beginning to speak. It’s short and powerful and it works if we repeat it often enough. Instead of asking, get everything ready and then gently say, “Your shower is ready,” and lead him or her into the room.

2. Room Temperature: When preparing the room make sure it is very warm. It may feel like a sauna to you but to someone who is frail it could still feel chilly. Make sure the water is warm also but make sure it isn’t hot. Test it as you would before bathing an infant. Have plenty of soft, warm towels at hand. Warming them in the dryer just before shower time is a good idea.

3. Modesty: Most of us have some body issues and are reluctant to have others see us naked and this could be especially true of an elderly parent being bathed by one of their children.  It’s perfectly okay to wrap a towel around their chest and one over their lap and bathe them through the towel. They maintain their dignity, stay warm, and get clean all at the same time.

4. It’s Scary: Imagine sitting naked on an uncomfortable seat in a little room with sounds echoing around you. You’re not sure why you are, how you got there, or what’s going to happen. Then all of a sudden something starts falling out of the sky and hitting you on your head, chest or back.

Dementia affects vision as well as memory and other functions. The person in your care cannot see the water falling from the shower head. It’s confusing and frightening and they want nothing to do with it. (Note:  The next time you shower pay attention to the water flowing from the shower head. How well can you see it?)

To help alleviate the fear and confusion use a hand- held shower head and start at their feet, moving very slowly up the legs, talking softly as you go along, have their favorite music playing if you can. Let them wash themselves as much as possible.

When bathing is complete wrap them in warm towels even before leaving the shower and remain in the warm room until they are complete dry and clothed.

Will this work all the time for everyone? Probably not. There will come a time when showers and baths are no longer possible and bed baths are the best you can do. Until then,  try some of these suggestions they may make things just a little bit easier for both of you.

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