Caregiver stress is a serious issue that can have a significant impact on the lives of those who provide care for their loved ones. Caregivers often experience emotional and physical strain due to the amount of care their elderly, sick, or disabled family member needs. This can lead to caregiver exhaustion, a state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion that can be accompanied by a change in attitude. Burnout can occur when caregivers don't get the help they need or if they try to do more than they can, physically or financially.
Having a deep understanding of the concept of caregiver burden is key to understanding care from the caregiver's perspective. Self-perception involves the caregiver reflecting on personal experience during the care process. The best way to reduce the psychological impacts of caregiving is to learn to identify stress triggers, practice positive self-care, and be proactive in taking a break and taking other steps to minimize stress and other symptoms when you begin to feel the burden of caregiving. Caregiver stress syndrome has been linked to depression and anxiety in caregivers, as well as physical manifestations of chronic stress such as an increased risk of heart attack and stroke.
In 1980, Zarit, Reever and Bach-Peterson developed the first scale to assess the effect of care on caregivers, known as the Zarit Caregiver Burden (ZBI) interview. Conflict between career, care responsibilities, and family needs imposes higher levels of burden on the caregiver. The caregiver burden is related to the well-being of both the individual and the caregiver; therefore, it is important to understand the attributes associated with the caregiver's burden. Caregivers can practice good self-care by learning the signs and symptoms of anxiety, depression, and exhaustion, and taking steps to alleviate stress factors when they detect possible indicators of caregiver exhaustion.
Clarifying the concept of caregiver burden is essential to help health professionals and the general population to better understand the burden of caregivers. Healthcare organizations must implement support structures to ease the burden of caregivers on caregivers. Caregivers play a vital role in reducing health system costs and resources by caring for loved ones at home. Therefore, it is essential to care for caregivers to reduce the long-term effects of the burden on caregivers.
Medicaid caregivers get paid for this work, but Medicare caregivers don't, which is not fair.
