Today, most people recognize the term family caregiver. However, that wasn’t always the case! NFCA strives to make life easier for family caregivers by educating, supporting and advocating for caregivers’ rights and needs. There is still a long way to go before we can say family caregivers are getting all the education, training, support, and assistance they need, but it is clear that our nation recognizes that “Family Caregivers Matter”.
That’s why we’ve selected the theme “Family Caregivers Matter” as the message for National Family Caregivers Month 2012. Here are just some of the ways that family caregivers matter.
- Family caregivers matter to their loved ones, spending an average of 20 hours per week providing care – and many caring for their loved ones around the clock. I know that my husband Steven gets very nervous if I am not feeling well. There is an instinctive fear for my health that goes beyond his love and concern for me. It is because if something happens to me, who will care for him? What family caregivers do for their loved ones goes far beyond the number of hours we put in. We give them hope; we sustain them. We do everything we can to ensure they get good care and can remain at home as long as possible without sacrificing their safety or ours. Without a family caregiver, thousands more people would be in nursing homes and healthcare costs would skyrocket for the government. Oh yes, family caregivers matter to their loved ones – and everyone else, whether they realize it or not.
- Family caregivers matter in making sure that medications are taken properly and that doctor appointments are kept. More often than not, family caregivers are the managers of their loved one’s medication regimen, seeing to it that medicines are taken on time and that different medicines prescribed by different doctors are properly reconciled. More than 100,000 people die each year because of problems with medication. Given that our loved ones take more medications than most people, if we didn’t play the role of medication manager that number could well be higher. Today there are more products on the market to help people manage their medications. Even with these technological advances, family caregivers play a key role in setting them up and reviewing the data they are recording.
- Family caregivers matter in reducing health care costs and avoiding hospital readmissions. Family caregivers provide the lion’s share of long-term care and support for those with chronic care needs – more than $450 billion of unpaid care each year. Family caregivers are the only people who are consistently present with their loved ones across all care settings. Every time there is a nursing shift change in a hospital, every time a patient moves from hospital to rehab, personnel change. Only family caregivers are there as full partners with their loved ones through it all. So many health and safety issues arise during times of transition that if a primary caregiver isn’t present, problems can easily arise. One of the major ways that family caregivers help reduce healthcare costs and avoid hospital readmissions is by being their loved one’s advocate and asking questions during hospital stays and during doctors’ visits. No question is too small.
- Family caregivers matter to each other. Have you ever been to a support group or placed a question on a caregivers’ forum? Family caregivers so often feel isolated and alone. Just knowing that there are 65 million other family caregivers in America provides a certain kind of psychic relief – I’m not the only one out there thinking and feeling this way. With all of the ways to connect online these days, family caregivers have more opportunities than ever before to talk with other family caregivers. The forum on NFCA’s web site is the most visited section of the site. What’s nice about forums is that they can be anonymous. You can let down your hair and say things you’d never say face to face with someone. They are a great way to receive validation of your feelings and also to gain valuable tips for making your life and your loved one’s a little easier.
For all of these reasons – and so many more, Family Caregivers Matter!