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2024 National Family Caregivers Month Blog Banner

Novem­ber is Care­giv­er Month

Kathleen for Blog

Kathleen Bolger, KYC Caregiver Specialist

Writ­ten by KYC’s Care­giv­er Spe­cial­ist, Kath­leen Bolger

For some, car­ing for a fam­i­ly mem­ber, friend, or neigh­bor with a chron­ic ill­ness is a call­ing which can be a deeply mean­ing­ful and pur­pose-dri­ven endeav­or. For oth­ers, care­giv­ing is some­thing unex­pect­ed, tak­en on reluc­tant­ly. And for the rest of us, care­giv­ing isn’t some­thing we think about often; it has not typ­i­cal­ly been much on the radar in pub­lic dis­course. That is chang­ing as our pop­u­la­tion ages, which is good news. What is a con­stant for care­givers, though, whether they find the work a call­ing, or a bur­den, is that care­giv­ing is stress­ful — maybe one of the most stress­ful things some­one can do in their lifetime.

This is because, in part, the skills required to give care effec­tive­ly are clin­i­cal skills that require train­ing. Care­givers have to be aware of the dis­ease process, coor­di­nate med­ical care; they may need to be skilled at chang­ing catheters and feed­ing tubes, or know how to work a Hoy­er lift; they need to know what sup­plies and equip­ment Medicare does and does not cov­er; they need to know about estate plan­ning and Med­ic­aid; they need to be a chauf­feur, cook, house­keep­er; they need to be an activ­i­ties coor­di­na­tor; they need to know how to deesca­late a con­flict, and pre­vent esca­la­tion of dif­fi­cult behav­iors. And the list goes on. These are skills that med­ical assis­tants, law pro­fes­sion­als, occu­pa­tion­al and phys­i­cal ther­a­pists, and social work­ers employ every day. And we ask fam­i­ly mem­bers or friends to use these skills to care for their loved one, with no train­ing, and often while jug­gling full time work and oth­er fam­i­ly com­mit­ments. Or by leav­ing the work­force, putting them­selves in a pre­car­i­ous finan­cial posi­tion. That’s a gigan­tic ask. And it is us who tac­it­ly make this ask. 

2024 National Family Caregivers Month Blog Post Images Instagram Size 1

Why? Because fam­i­ly mem­bers and friends who pro­vide this care save the Unit­ed States about $600 bil­lion (yes, bil­lion) annu­al­ly. In 2023, they pro­vid­ed 36 bil­lion hours of unpaid work. With­out infor­mal care­givers, we, the tax­pay­ers, would bear this cost. 

But the bur­den that infor­mal care­givers car­ry isn’t only finan­cial. The time com­mit­ment need­ed to pro­vide care often means that care­givers neglect their own health; they are at high­er risk for injury, and often expe­ri­ence height­ened fam­i­ly con­flict. Iso­la­tion is com­mon, as is depression.

What is KYC doing to help infor­mal care­givers? Well, through our Care­giv­er Resource Cen­ter, fund­ed through the Old­er Amer­i­cans Act, we teach self-care skills and edu­cate care­givers about demen­tia, Med­ic­aid, and oth­er logis­tics of care­giv­ing. We sup­port care­givers with coun­sel­ing and sup­port groups, and we dis­trib­ute funds that care­givers can use to hire respite care and to pur­chase sup­plies. We are here to walk with care­givers, to help them nav­i­gate the bureau­cra­cy, and to wit­ness the awe­some work they are doing. If you would like to get start­ed with the Care­giv­er Resource Cen­ter, check it out here.

Ref­er­ence: https://​www​.aarp​.org/​c​o​n​t​e​n​t​/​d​a​m​/​a​a​r​p​/​p​p​i​/​2023​/​3​/​v​a​l​u​i​n​g​-​t​h​e​-​i​n​v​a​l​u​a​b​l​e​-​2023​-​u​p​d​a​t​e​.​d​o​i​.​10​.​26419 – 2Fppi.00082.006.pdf


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