Professional Tips for Home Care Providers in Greater Auburn, NH on Combating Caregiver Stress
Being a home care provider is difficult. Most caregivers only give care to people in their family or people they know who are elderly or disabled. Making the decision to become a professional caregiver is selfless and wonderful, though it is crucial to make sure you are taking care of yourself as well as the person you are caring for.
Caregiving can affect you in many ways, both positively and negatively. Unfortunately, the negative effects of caregiving can greatly impact the mental and even physical health of a caregiver. Caregivers can experience stress, guilt, and exhaustion which can lead to depression, anxiety, and even physical signs of stress such as strokes or heart attacks. As a caregiver, it can be hard to remember to take care of yourself. However, to provide quality care for someone else, you have to make sure you are healthy.
Visiting Angels of Auburn Provides a Guide to Stay Healthy for Home Care Providers
In this blog, we will cover multiple ways on how to stay healthy as a home care provider so that you can give your clients the best possible care. This guide includes:
- Caregiving Facts: You’re Not Alone
- Reasons for Burnout & Stress
- Identifying Symptoms of Burnout and Stress
- Avoiding Burnout
- Managing Stress for Caregivers
Caregiving Facts: You Are Not Alone
When most of your time is spent caregiving, you can begin to feel isolated. Caregiving can take you away from spending time with friends or family which can be lonely. You may have less time to do the things you enjoy, and this can have an emotional and psychological impact on caregivers. Many caregivers believe that what they feel emotionally isn’t normal, but it is important to remember that other caregivers are experiencing the same things.
Many families have started to hire home care providers as their elderly loved ones decide to age in place in the comfort of their homes. More than 44 million Americans provide care for a senior loved one or client. It is very common for home care providers to feel overly stressed due to caregiving.
Reasons for Burnout & Stress
At Visiting Angels of Auburn, we believe that it is crucial for our caregivers to be happy and healthy while working with their clients. However, all caregivers are at risk of feeling burned out and stressed. It is important that home care providers understand what can lead to feelings of stress and burnout. The following is a list of factors that could be responsible for the negative emotions that can accompany caregiving.
- Fear of the future, usually for the future of a client approaching the end of life process
- Changes in the behavior of a client, especially clients who suffer from dementia or Alzheimer’s
- Guilt over neglecting other areas of life
- Little or no free time
- Less engagement in social events
- Placing unreasonably high expectations on your capabilities as a home care provider
Identifying Symptoms of Burnout & Stress
Home care providers have to know how to recognize the physical manifestations of depression, anxiety, and burnout to prevent these serious health hazards from taking hold. The following list of symptoms are signals all caregivers should be aware of that may indicate they are experiencing burnout.
- Feeling a lack of empathy from others such as family or friends
- Feeling worried, exhausted, and anxious all the time
- Feeling stretched too thin
- Changing sleep patterns
- Weight loss or weight gain
- Difficulty concentrating
- Up and down mood swings
- Feeling more agitated or angry than normal
Avoiding Burnout
The easiest way to avoid burnout is prevention. The negative psychological effects of caregiving can be prevented through the following:
- Engage in activities you enjoy.
- Take time to relax.
- Write a journal to keep track of the times when you’re feeling frustrated or upset. This can help you identify what is causing these emotions.
- Make sure to manage your time well to establish a healthy daily routine.
- When you’re feeling down, take a few moments to focus on the positives of caregiving.
- Put your own mental and physical health first. As a home care provider, you cannot help others if you aren’t taking care of yourself. The quality of care you give to others depends on your own well-being.
- Get enough sleep. If you can’t sleep well at night, take naps during the day.
- Maintain a healthy diet.
- Exercise regularly, even if it’s for half an hour a day.
- Reach out when you need help and accept it. Visiting Angels of Auburn can help caregivers manage their stress.
Managing Stress for Caregivers
While prevention is the best way to avoid stress and burnout, it isn’t always realistic. You can’t avoid stress forever and you can never get rid of it completely. Stress is a part of life. However, even when you are stressed there are ways to manage it so it does not get the best of you. These tips can help reduce and handle stress.
- Step back and take a break. If you need a break, your body is probably giving you clues. Be aware of your own feelings.
- Celebrate your victories. As a caregiver, what you do is wonderful and selfless. Your work is important, and you are making the lives of others better every day. Celebrate this.
- Accept what you cannot change. Focusing on how unfair certain things are in life will not make the situation better. Sometimes, all you can do is accept the situation and make the best of it. There are things no one can change. Find the things you can change and go from there.
Apply to Visiting Angels of Auburn
Visiting Angels of Auburn understands the importance of keeping our caregivers happy and healthy. We treat our home care providers with respect and offer them everything we can to help them succeed. If you are a caregiver searching for an agency that cares about their employees, apply to Visiting Angels of Auburn today for immediate consideration!