Seek Help With Caregiving Duties (Part 1)

I’m not into crowds. Most of my activities the last few years have centered around my home, parents, friends, and church, and I like it that way. But the responsibilities of caregiving have forced me to expand my circle by necessity.

As an only child recovering from severe fatigue and helping to care for a mother who has Alzheimer’s, I’ve struggled to find the right balance between personal, professional, and family responsibilities. Childhood friends envied me because I don’t have brothers and sisters. Until recently, I’ve envied them because they have help in sharing the load.

Where do you turn when you don’t have enough family members around to help, and your friends are as sick as you used to be? What if you haven’t been able to work for years because of personal and/or family illness? And what if your family has too little income to pay for extra help but too much to meet the income qualifications of most federal programs, qualifications that haven’t been adjusted to deal with the real cost of living? Start with Medicare.

Because of recent budget cuts, Medicare is a temporary solution at best, but it pays for a variety of short-term and intermittent (ceasing for a time) services. These services are geared toward training family members to provide care more efficiently.

The home health agency that provides our services initially has created a new set of challenges. A small army of new caregivers–a nurse, a physical therapist, and a personal aid–has descended on our apartment for short visits that require us to participate and learn new techniques. We have seen rapid results, however, in their lessons on streamlining necessary tasks and encouraging patient independence. You can access similar services by contacting your loved one’s primary care provider.

In future posts, I’ll address other ways to get help with caregiving duties.

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