Where are You on the Caregiving Journey?

The caregiving experience can be so big that "it is hard to see the forest for the trees". It is easy to see each situation as it comes up, without looking out over the entire forest to create a path that will help us navigate the journey. Even if we have a plan for helping us on this journey, we may come upon a "speed bump" or an obstacle on the path that causes us to question what we should do next.

I recently spoke with a caregiver who was very comfortable providing the physical care for her husband because she had worked as a caregiver for most of her career. She had mapped out the path of caring for him at home and things were moving along as expected until a few months ago. Her husband started losing his appetite, was consequently not eating much and was losing a great deal of weight. She was trying very hard to make the foods he liked, and to get him to eat more. As we were talking she also told me that she had recently started experiencing "tingling" on one side of her face. During the course of this conversation she was able to recognize that the "tingling" happened when she was unable to get her husband to eat, when she felt the feelings of failure and helplessness. Once the emotional stress was recognized as an obstacle to her health and ultimately her ability to care for him, she could move on to develop ways to cope with this situation.

What do you need to be able to continue on the caregiving journey? What areas of caregiving are you dealing with currently?  Have you come upon any obstacles or speed bumps?  We have identified several areas of caregiving along the path and have listed them in a short survey.  We would like to hear from you, are you dealing with any of these areas now, or have in the past?  Are you dealing with an area that is not on the list, if so, please list it under "other".  If you have stories that relate to the areas of caregiving you have identified, please feel free to share your stories with us by using the comments section. 

Thanks ahead of time for your input in the survey and for sharing your story.

Click here to take survey