When speaking to family members who are caring for their loved one night after night, the theme repeated to me is: caregiving can be overwhelming and stressful.

• “I’m exhausted. I have a full-time job and when I come home, I have to care for my mother. My work never ends.”
• “It’s difficult to keep all these medications straight. What’s the other name for the water pill? I want to make sure I give my husband the right one.”
• “I just want to know how to care for my mother as best as I can. I want to learn as much as possible.”
• “I’m not a nurse. I don’t know how to do this (physical care) very well.”
• “I need more help!”

Throughout my nursing career and through personal experience, I have come to realize that most of us will be caregivers for someone else at some point in our lives. Some of us may only need to assist our elderly parents with financial and health care decisions. Others may be required to coordinate medical appointments, manage medications and escort an ill friend to the doctor, while the rest of us may become the twenty-four hour caregiver for a bedridden spouse. In each instance, however, we will be the primary source of emotional or physical support for a dear friend or loved one.

Caregiving is like a house of playing cards. Your self-care is like the bottom of the house. If you’re not supported with a strong base of support from the bottom-up, it’s easier for you to cave in from the stress… and it all falls down. A base of sturdy support through positive emotional, physical and social health is more manageable for you to provide adequate assistance to loved ones and build on your role as caregiver. Like the house of cards, you need balance.

One way the Visiting Nurse Service of New York is attempting to reach caregivers is through a free educational and supportive newsletter. Your loved one doesn’t need to be a patient with VNSNY in order to receive this information, which includes practical tips on how to care for a friend or family member while finding the support you need for yourself. Self-care is important, too!

Sign up for the free newsletter here:  www.vnsny.org/caringdelivered.

Also feel free to share some topics that you would like to see in the newsletter in the comment section below.

Take care of yourself!