Caregivers are those who assist others in need of help with daily activities and/or medical tasks. While some caregivers exist in a formal capacity, most of them are family or informal caregivers – those who are unpaid and formally untrained to provide care for an individual.
For most informal caregivers, caregiving can be a full-time job, depending on the care recipient’s condition. Many daunting things to even trained nurses may end up being routine care of persons with chronic illnesses living at home. As a result, caregivers often neglect their health and well-being to care for the recipient.
For this reason, it is important for the people around the caregiver to keep a vigilant eye on them for signs of strain and distress and willingly offer them support in any way they can.
Here are a few ways how you can support the caregivers in your life:
Pick up tasks that get pushed to the side
Caregivers tend to prioritise the needs of their care recipient above anything else, which also means that less important duties tend to get neglected or end up piling up. Things like doing the laundry, cleaning the house, or even picking up groceries tend to get pushed to the back of their minds as they are preoccupied with their caregiving responsibilities.
If you’re going to the dry cleaners, consider picking up their laundry too. Or ask the caregiver in your life for their shopping list while you’re on a grocery run. Try to lighten the number of tasks that they have to carry as much as you can.
Urge them to take better care of themselves
Many caregivers might feel guilty for taking a break from their caregiving duties and feel like they’re slacking off. But that way of thinking is counterproductive. The caregiver burden is real and can take a severe toll on a caregiver’s mental health if left unchecked.
Try to note any changes in their behaviour. If it seems like they’re reaching their breaking point, it is important for you to step in before it can happen, as the caregiver themselves might not notice their burnout symptoms.
Suggest respite care services or take up the caregiving job yourself, if only for a few hours, to give the caregiver in your life the opportunity to have time for themselves and re-energise.
Show them you care
Caregiving can get discouraging after long periods of time when it seems like the care recipient is not showing any signs of getting better or is in declining health.
Show the caregiver in your life that you appreciate all they’re doing and assure them that their hard work has not gone unnoticed. Schedule a quick call with them to catch up and check in, shoot them a text or even send them an impromptu gift. No matter how small, gestures of love are always meaningful and will go a long way.
Encourage them to seek additional support
Caregiving can get overwhelming, especially for those with limited experience with it. If it seems like the caregiver in your life is struggling, suggest sources they can refer to for needed help. Refer them to caregiver education and support programs run by local organisations and support groups, or suggest healthcare professionals who can give them helpful advice.
If they’re burdened emotionally and psychologically, consider referring the caregiver in your life to a therapist. While having friends and family around does help, it’s different from receiving counsel from a professional third party who can help them assess not only their well-being but also help them navigate caregiving better.
Since caregivers are so used to prioritising the needs of their care recipient over their own, they may fail to recognise the physical and psychological signs of the caregiver burden taking its toll on them. For this reason, having people they can lean on for support is paramount.
This article was brought to you by Naluri’s Mental Health Coaches. Naluri empowers you to develop healthy lifestyle habits, achieve meaningful health outcomes, and be healthier and happier through personalised coaching, structured programmes, self-guided lessons, and health tools and devices. Download the Naluri App today or contact hello@naluri.life for more information on utilising digital health coaching and therapy to become a happier, healthier you.