Introduction
The relevance of care givers when it comes to assisting persons with disabilities or chronic illnesses cannot be overstated. Towards this end, caregivers come in handy in ensuring the continuous care – especially when it comes to ensuring that all prescriptions are filled and that the patient has in place all the necessary tools (i.e. medical equipment such as a wheelchair, oxygen machine etc.) and services to promote their wellbeing and/or comfort. Thus, to a large extent, the responsibilities shouldered by caregivers are immense. Owing to their close interaction with the patient and the effort invested on this front, they happen to be prone to not only psychological, but also physical morbidity. It therefore follows that when it comes to alleviating the caregiver burden, the relevance of having in place formal support mechanisms targeting the said caregivers cannot be overstated.
Assessment of the Phenomena
In the words of Vanderwerker, Laff, Kadan-Lottick, McColl and Prigerson (2005), “caregiving has been broadly defined as the act of providing unpaid or informal support and assistance to an older person with physical, mental impairment, or both” (12). As the authors further observe, the said care could be inclusive of a wide range of broad functions such as monitoring/supervision, household activity management, emotional support, personal care, etc. In most instances, caregivers happen to be family members. Hence, most caregivers are unpaid. However, there are also formal caregivers who have special training and/or education in the provision of care to terminally ill or disabled patients. One of the main outcome predictors – for persons requiring caregiver support and caregiver themselves – is caregiver burden. This is essentially the stress and anxiety encountered by caregivers in the caregiving scenario.
Despite being rewarding, advancing care to hospice patients could be a rather onerous task. Indeed, in the words of Berry, Dalwadi, and Jacobson (2017), “caregiving also is a high-risk occupation whose effects on the caregiver have been linked empirically to diminished quality of life, depression, impaired immunity, heart disease, and early death” (86). In seeking to assess the need for support groups in as far as the minimization of caregiver burden is concerned, it would be prudent to first highlight the negative impact of the caregiving role, and the toll it takes on the psychological, social, and physical wellbeing of caregivers. To begin with, caregiving comes with numerous medical care as well as physical responsibilities. Examples on this front could be inclusive of medication administration and provision of personal hygiene to persons having terminal illnesses. In some cases, terminally ill patients have increasingly demanding needs that ought to be met as time goes by. A good example on this front would be terminal cancer. Here, changes in the status of the patient,...
In some instances, the effect of working long hours and addressing demanding situations could also result in deteriorating physical health.
Caregiving also has its fair share of psychological and emotional demands. In dealing with terminally ill patients or patients with disabilities, caregivers are likely to experience anxiety as well as feelings of helplessness/hopelessness and fear. Burnout could also result as a consequence of working long hours and sleep depreciation. In a 2005 study of caregivers providing care to cancer patients, it was found that 13 in 100 caregivers had a psychiatric disorder as per the DSM-IV criteria (Vanderwerker, Laff, Kadan-Lottick, McColl and Prigerson, 2005). According to the authors, in the said study, “the prevalence of psychiatric disorders was as follows: panic disorder, 8.0%;
major depressive disorder, 4.5%; post-
traumatic stress disorder, 4.0%; and generalized anxiety disorder, 3.5%” (Vanderwerker, Laff, Kadan-Lottick, McColl and Prigerson, 2005, p. 14). It should also be noted that in the course of caregiving, caregivers are...…have functioned in a caregiving role at some point. This is more so the case when it comes to informal caregiving – with the recipient of care being either a
family member or a friend.
In a 2015 survey, the AARP Public Policy Institute made a finding to the effect that approximately 43.5 million American adults had played a caregiving role within the preceding 12 month period to a child or adult. According to the survey, “roughly 14.3% of all American adults are a caregiver to someone age 50 or older” (15). The table below indicates the estimated caregiving prevalence on the basis of recipient age.
Type of Recipient
Prevalence
Estimated Number of Caregivers
Overall
18.2%
43.5 million
Child Recipients
1.6%
3.7 million
Adult Recipients
13.9%
33.3 million
Both Child and Adult Recipients
2.7%
6.5 million
Source: AARP Public Policy Institute
It should also be noted that as per the AARP Public Policy Institute survey, most caregivers happen to be female (60%). The percentage of male care givers is estimated as 40%. In as far as age is concerned, the AARP Public Policy Institute (2015) points out that “on average, caregivers of adults are 49.2 years old…. nearly half are between the ages of 18 and 49 (48%)” (18).
There are also studies that have sought to highlight the most significant caregiver stressors. In one such study, the main caregiver stressors in as far as the care of dementia patients is considered were highlighted. The top three stressors in this case were identified as medication management, memory loss, and hygiene (Huelat and Pochron, 2020). In as far as caregiver support is concerned, the authors made a finding to the effect that most care givers “identified ‘finding available resources’ as the most important source of stress relief” (Huelat and Pochron, 2020, p. 256). The figure below highlights cited caregiver support and resource networks.
Source: Huelat and…
