Caregiver Tips For Getting Through the Day

Ezine
By Rebecca Sharp Colmer

The duties of the caregiver usually change and increase over a period of time. One of the most difficult aspects of the caregiver role is that the job continues seven days a week, 24 hours a day.

One way to help caregivers get through the day is to set up a care plan and develop a routine.

The caregiver's care plan is very similar to the nurse's plan of care and the hospice plan of care. It is a daily record of the care and treatment of the care-receiver.

It provides a record of events that assist everyone on the care team. It also allows another caregiver to take your place fairly easily. With a written plan you don't have to rely on your memory.

A daily record will help both the caregiver and the care-receiver, and everyone on the care team. For any care plan to work, the care-receiver should be included in every possible aspect of the planning process. This may be difficultif the are receiver has Alzheimer's diseasor another dementia.

Then observation and a loosely stuctured routine might work best

To get started the family must determine who is going to be the primary caregiver. This person will have the main responsibility for the actual care.

Establishing a well-thought out care plan will help relieve stress for everyone involved. Many decisions will have to be made.

An evaluation of needs and activities can be done to assess and determine a baseline which will help determine the caregiver's duties.

These may include....read the whole article

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