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Caregiver's Handbook: A Guide
to Caring for the Ill, Elderly, or Disabled...
and Yourself
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If someone you care about — a spouse,
parent, relative, or close friend — needs
help negotiating the daily tasks of life, this
report can assist you in offering them the care
they need while looking after yourself too. While
caregiving is one of the most worthwhile jobs
you may ever undertake, it can cause undeniable
strain. Many people feel unbearably squeezed
between the demands of caregiving, the needs
of their families, and the pressures of work.
It’s common, too, for caregivers to feel
isolated and neglect their own needs, especially
when they’re caught up in medical crises.
If you’re a caregiver, surely you could
use a helping hand, too. This report can help.
It offers detailed information on putting together
a caregiving plan, talking to your loved one
about the situation, drawing on resources in
the community, and addressing legal, medical,
and financial planning issues. There’s
also a questionnaire to help you assess the needs
of the person you’re caring for and advice
on handling daily tasks, like meals and hygiene.
You’ll also find tips and suggestions on
maintaining your own well-being.
Prepared by the editors of Harvard Health Publications
in consultation with Anne Fabiny, M.D., Chief
of Geriatrics at the Cambridge Health Alliance
and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard
Medical School, and Suzanne Modigliani, L.I.C.S.W.,
C.M.C.,Geriatric Care Manager, Brookline, Mass.
48 pages. (updated: 2007)
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Table of Contents:
- Developing a plan
- My caregiving
goals
- Scouting the
path ahead
- Talking with
your loved one
- Working with
a geriatric care manager
- Completing a
needs questionnaire
- Legal planning
- Wills and trusts
- Durable power
of attorney
- Guardianship
- Advance care
directives
- Do-not-resuscitate
orders
- Financial planning
- Organizing finances
- Searching out
benefits and services
- Managing insurance
policies
- Navigating the Medicaid
and Medicare Maze
- Medicaid
- Medicare
- Medicare prescription
drug coverage
- Medical planning
- Choosing doctors
- Why choose a
geriatrician?
- Care in an emergency
- Home to hospital
to rehab: Navigating health transitions
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- Meeting needs
- Making use of
helpful services and professionals
- Involving family
members
- Long-distance
caregiving
- Handling daily tasks
and common problems
- Mobility
- Meals
- Personal hygiene
- Urinary incontinence
- Bowel incontinence
- Care for the caregiver
- Gaining support
- Seeking balance
- Setting limits
- Caring for your
health
- Relieving stress
- When your loved one
can’t stay at home
- Options for care
- Making a move
- Glossary
- Resources
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Here's an
Excerpt from this Caregivers Resource Special
Health Report
Scouting the path ahead
Change is one of the few certainties of caregiving.
Geriatrician Anne Fabiny emphasizes the need
for caregivers to evaluate their situation early
and often. Settle on a plan, but realize that
circumstances are bound to change. Reassess your
plan every few months if the situation is fairly
stable, or from week to week if the outcome is
unclear. As time goes on, you may need more assistance
than you initially thought, such as additional
help from family members or outside services.
If possible, always keep a step or two ahead
by asking experts for their best assessment of
how the situation might change in another few
weeks, months, or years.
Negotiating goals that everyone involved can
embrace can help make necessary changes achievable.
Elderly parents, for example, may long to continue
living independently at home rather than move
in with you or to a nursing home. With this in
mind, what are the best ways to improve their
daily life and enhance their abilities? How can
you best support their independence? What care
or services will they need to meet these goals?
Changes may be more palatable if they make it
possible for a person to stay in a well-loved
home or return to it after hospitalization. One
option might be hiring someone for three to four
hours a day to help an older parent or relative
get going in the morning and remind him or her
to take medications. Alternatively, you might
only need to check in frequently and set certain
services in place, such as yard work and snow
shoveling, bill paying, grocery shopping, or
delivery of hot meals. Or you might need to consider
how to make the bathroom or other parts of the
home more accessible to enhance the person’s
mobility.
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