While providing unpaid care for a friend or loved one so they can remain at home can certainly be rewarding, it’s also demanding, and sometimes isolating.
In fact, according to a recent report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information, caregiving can have, ‘profound emotional, mental, financial and physical impacts.’
The same report found that one in three unpaid caregivers of individuals receiving long-term home care experienced distress.
With one in four Canadian adults providing this type of care, there’s a good chance one of them is someone close to you.
So how can you support a friend who’s caring for a partner, or family member?
You can find out in my most recent ‘Your Health Questions’ column for Good Times magazine: ‘Caring for a Caregiver.’
A big thank-you to the interviewees who so generously shared their time and expertise:
Ana Meher-Hoeft, a Canadian Certified Counsellor with Butterfly Counselling Services in Spruce Grove, AB.
Madelaine Ross, a Registed Psychiatric Nurse, and part-time counsellor at the Parkinson Society British Columbia in Vancouver.
Resources
Photo by Mohamed Assan, courtesy of Pixabay