Those who take care of someone in the family with a chronic medical illness or dementia are likely to have felt depression, anger, or guilt.
If your health has deteriorated since taking on the responsibility of caregiving and you have experienced any of these feelings, you may be suffering from Caregiver Stress.
The condition is now being referred to as “Caregiver Syndrome” by the medical community because of numerous consistent signs and symptoms. Dr. Jean Posner, a neuropsychiatrist in Baltimore, Maryland, describes “Caregiver Syndrome” as “a debilitating condition brought on by unrelieved, constant caring for a person with chronic illness or dementia”.
Many exhausted, ill caregivers today do not seek help because they do not realise that they have a recognisable condition.
Peter Vitaliano, a professor of geriatric psychiatry at the University of Washington and an ex- pert on caregiving, says the chronic stress of caring for someone can lead to high blood pressure, diabetes and a compromised immune system and even death. Elderly caregivers are at a 63 per cent higher risk of mortality than non-caregivers in the same age group, according to a study by University of Pittsburgh researchers Richard Schulz and Scott Beach reported in The Journal of the American Medical Association, December, 1999. Vitaliano likened hormone levels in exhausted caregivers to those of sufferers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Vitaliano says caregivers are usually so immersed in their roles that they neglect their own care. The stress is not only related to the daunting work of caregiving, but also the grief associated with the decline in the health of their loved ones.
Caregiver stress is directly related to the way our society views the elderly and the people who care for them,. Vitaliano says. Today, caregiving is regarded largely as a burden in this coun- try [and Canada]. If it were viewed as more of a societal expectation and people were willing to offer more support, fewer caregivers would suffer in isolation., he says.
Many agree that giving caregiver syndrome an official name would be helpful.
Caregivers who show signs of hostility, anxiety and loss of interest in activities they used to enjoy, are urged to talk to their doctors.
Excerpted from an article by Andrée Leroy, M.D., in the Mississauga Halton Community Care Access Centre publication, The Family Caregiver Newsmagazine.