Finding Caregiver Support: Managing Emotional Strain and Resources
May 13, 2023
We’ve been talking a lot about caregiver mental health and well-being, and with good reason. Caregiving has a lot of emotions associated with it, including anxiety and burnout (like we talked about previously), as well as stress, exhaustion, and frustration. You may be feeling some of these emotions, none of them, or feel buried beneath the weight of it all. No matter where you are in your caregiving journey, please know that you’re not alone and that there are many resources available to help you. Additionally, here at Avanlee Care, our passion is simplifying the caregiving journey for caregivers and their loved ones. From simplifying managing medications and reminders remotely to grocery fulfillment, we’re here to help. Today we’re going to talk a little bit more about managing the emotional strain of caregiving, as well as some more tactics to help manage some of those feelings.
So I’m stressed. Now what?
According to AARP’s 2020 report on caregiving, 36% of caregivers find their caregiving experience and situation to be highly stressful, and another 28% reported at least moderate emotional stress. In other words, 64% of caregivers nationwide find caregiving to be stressful. You’re not alone in feeling this way. We’re here to help provide some practical solutions for finding support in your caregiving journey.
Don’t feel guilty.
Some research has found that rather than caregiving itself being stress-inducing, it may be more the stress as a byproduct or response to the burdens of caregiving that weigh on caregivers. You’re not stressed because you hate caregiving or your loved one, but rather because caregiving is hard and isolating and can cause a lot of feelings of overwhelm and exhaustion. If you’re in the trenches and not loving it, don’t worry. It’s not just you. Caregiving is hard and isolating. You’re doing great.
Set Yourself Up For Success
Downloading an app like Avanlee can help reduce some of the burdensome tasks associated with caregiving. Avanlee offers remote health biometrics tracking, so you can keep an eye on your loved one’s heart rate, sleep, and step data from wherever you are, as long as they have a wearable device like a Fitbit or an Apple Watch or have Apple Health or Google fit enabled on their smartphone.
Additionally, you can manage your loved one’s schedule (and even schedule other family members for rides and appointment help) directly in the app. Although it won’t solve all of your problems, we do hope it can take some of your caregiving burdens away or at least simplify things.
If you need more support resources, there are many options for caregivers to use. Here are some of our recommendations below.
Find Resources
If you’re needing some additional support resources as you provide care for a loved one, sometimes the best way to get started is to find someone to talk to.
Find a therapist to talk to virtually or in person. Daily Caring has published a great list of resources on therapists who can help caregivers specifically.
Depending on if you need emotional support or caregiving support, there are other organizations that can help you as well.
Finally, you can reach out to any of the organizations below for additional information and assistance if you need a hand, education, or advice with caregiving.
Support Organizations:
The US Department of Health and Human Services Resource Bank
Family Caregiver Alliance
National Center on Caregiving
(415) 434-3388 | (800) 445-8106
Website: https://www.caregiver.org/
Email: info@caregiver.org
FCA CareNav: https://fca.cacrc.org/login
Services by State: https://www.caregiver.org/connecting-caregivers/services-by-state/
Eldercare Locator
Eldercare.acl.gov
National Association of Area Agencies on Aging
www.n4a.org
Alzheimer’s Association
www.alz.org
Lotsa Helping Hands