Caregiver Role Strain
What is the most important factor that causes caregiver role strain?
A feeling of anxiety and stress accompanies the caregiver role strain. Various situations cause caregiver role strain. The leading cause is the financial burden of taking care of a loved one. The process comes with immense stresses and that it results in responsibilities. This is because the caregivers strain every day as life is amplified (Kawano (Eds), 2020). Especially is the family member has health concerns such as Alzheimer’s disease that tempers with memory forcing one to have physical debilitates. The gene therapies are often expensive because their treatment is not yet approved.
How do you assess for caregiver strain?
There are different ways of assessing caregiver strain; however, the main one is the use of the Caregiver Strain Index (CSI). It is a critical tool that quickly identifies a family with potential caregiving concerns. It does this by providing a thirteen tool question that measures strains related to strategies of care provision facilitated (Ribeiro (Eds), 2019). As caregiver role strain is experienced when a caregiver is overwhelmed or incapable of performing their roles to the best, they are easily identified using the Caregiver Strain Index.
What can be done to prevent or decrease caregiver role strain?
To prevent caregiver role stain, the member affected can share responsibilities with the rest of the family members. Also, one can hire a helper to assist in daily
caregiving activities. The caregivers can as well find someone they trust to express their feelings and frustrations (Zimmerman (Eds), 2018). Setting out realistic goals can as well decrease caregiver role strain as they outline what they need as caregivers. They can as well take advantage of the existing respite care services to help them with coping out.
References
Kawano, Y., Terada, S., Takenoshita, S., Hayashi, S., Oshima, Y., Miki, T., … & Yamada, N. (2020). Patient affect and caregiver burden in dementia. Psychogeriatrics, 20(2), 189-195.
Ribeiro, O., Brandão, D., Oliveira, A. F., Martín, I., Teixeira, L., & Paúl, C. (2019). The Modified Caregiver Strain Index: Portuguese version. Journal of health psychology, 1359105319883933.
Zimmerman, S., Sloane, P. D., Ward, K., Beeber, A., Reed, D., Lathren, C., … & Gwyther, L. (2018). Helping dementia caregivers manage medical problems: Benefits of an educational resource. American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease & Other Dementias®, 33(3), 176-183.