C-A-R-E-G-I-V-E-R Part 8

Welcome to Caregiver Friday!!

So are you soaking up all the qualities of being a caregiver over the past 7 weeks?  What has been the most impactful for you?  Are there aspects to your caregiving persona that you hadn’t acknowledged prior to the series?  Have there been moments when you’ve been able to sit back and felt validated for all you do as a caregiver? 

It’s important that we bring the aspects of caregiving out into the open because as our population lives longer it will be more the norm than the exception.  In order for our society to survive the aging population and the increase in disease we have to take caregiving seriously as well as it’s impact on you, the caregiver.

E is for Enterprising

One of the things I most admire about you, the caregiver, is your enterprising nature.  You’re able to show imagination and initiative in caring for someone who is ill or injured.  You’ve come up with practical solutions about maneuvering within your home, changing dietary requirements, or simply finding a way to create a sense of normal amongst all the chaos.  It’s that understanding of creating a “new normal” that I applaud you, the caregiver above and beyond all other aspects of caregiving.

You have a readiness to undertake this venture on a personal, emotional, physical, and spiritual level.  You enter the world of the health challenged and you’re impacted even without your own diagnosis.  I wonder if “caregiving” can be a diagnosis since it comes with physical, emotional, and spiritual challenges apart from those of the person with the diagnosis? 

The life of the personal caregiver is different from professional caregivers, those who are hired through agencies.  Professional caregivers are exposed to all sorts of caregiving situations and even though they make emotional attachments to the person/family they’re caring for; there’s still an acceptance that at some point in time they will move on to another family.  That’s not the case with you, the personal caregiver.  You’re in it for the long haul.  You’re there round-the-clock and you’ve had to become inventive in creating niches of time for yourself. 

I hope that part of your enterprising nature has been to carve out time and space for your own physical, emotional, and spiritual regeneration.  This is why support groups for caregivers are so important, because no one should have to reinvent the wheel.  Getting a group of enterprising people together results in creative and workable solutions to the dilemmas that arise in caregiving.

I’d love for you to share where you’ve been enterprising as a caregiver.  Let’s share the wealth of knowledge and experience.