PROBLEM MEMORANDUM
TO: Janet Collins, Ph.D. Director, CDC’s National Center for
Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
FROM: Joanna Herbaczewska, MPA/ Nursing Administration, Student, Baruch College, School of Public and International Affairs, Hunter – Bellevue Nursing School.
SUBJECT: Promote the Health and Well-being of Caregivers
DATE: September 8, 2016
Caregivers as a part of community play important role in the welfare of individuals. Caregivers often take care of frail and ill family members, often forgetting about their own life and health. They need financial, emotional support as well as physical and mental health assessment and interventions. The health care system is mainly focused on patients; caregivers who are slowly burning out can slip by unnoticed until it is too late to ask for help. Furthermore, caregiver’s needs are often overlooked by healthcare providers. They have some support from The National Alliance for Caregivers which lists various resources on its website, including research on the impact of caregiving. Also, there are sites like Caring .com and Family Caregiver Alliance which provide online group support. There is a need for national policy which would provide support for caregivers: emotional, financial and health-wise.
The new partnership between CDC and Kimberly-Clark Corporation was created in 2007 to promote the health and well-being of caregivers and implementing evidence-based caregiver interventions in “real-world” settings. (www.cdc.gov/aging/ and www.kimberly-clark.com.) Application of this framework can help practitioners and researchers anticipate pertinent issues as they engage in planning, conducting, or evaluating caregiver intervention programs and policies. However more interventions and support is needed to be done as caregivers provides as much as much as estimated $257–$389 billion worth of unpaid care annually to persons of all ages with disabilities and chronic illness. Still there is no sufficient data to estimate the health of caregivers or health effects of caregiving. Pilot survey was done in North Carolina and analyzed. From the survey researchers learned following: most of the caregivers were woman (59.1%), the average hours provided for caregiving were estimated about 20.1 hours per week. Most caregivers reported their mental health was “not good” due to caregiver’s burn out. Other issues included: health declining rapidly, financial strain, not enough time for other family members, affects work, reported sustaining an injury while caregiving. (http://www.cdc.gov)
What needs to be done to help caregivers is to create more support for them. Support financially, as they provide free caregiver services is one of the interventions. Furthermore, screening for any health issues for them should be affordable and in timely matter. Providers who take care of ill and older adults should also screen caregivers for any health issues including mental health and provide referral appropriately. Creating more support groups who would direct burn out caregivers to appropriate services. Additionally more research should be done to find out what is needed from healthcare providers and what Healthcare Policy’s should be created to assist caregivers on national level.
References:
Characteristics and Health of Caregivers and Care Recipients — North Carolina, 2005. (2007, May/June). Retrieved September 13, 2016, from http://www.cdc.gov/
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Kimberly-Clark Corporation. Assuring Healthy Caregivers, A Public Health Approach toTranslating Research into Practice: The RE-AIM Framework. Neenah, WI: Kimberly-Clark Corporation, 2008. Available at: www.cdc.gov/aging/ and www.kimberly-clark.com.
I am so glad there is someone looking out for caregivers. As a caregiver , you always providing for others and never get the chance to care for yourself. Also most people assume if you are getting paid for the job then that settles it. It will be very nice to have more help out there for care givers to utilize. I believe if you have a healthy body and a sound mind caregiver, you have a healthy and sound minded society.
Hi! Thanks for tackling this issue. The evidence stating that most caregivers rank their mental health as “not good” as a clear indicator that this is a huge problem. How can they help someone else if they are suffering themselves? I wonder if this is anything like “secondary trauma” that social workers often experience when working with people who’ve been traumatized. Not sure that this is exactly the case, but it could be analogous.
This is such an important topic. Healthcare in the US is very much behind most industrialized nations, but if we started thinking about what can be done to improve the way we approach certain forms of care, only positive things will be achieved.
I think the only thing I would add to your argument was some sort of statistic showing the benefit of providing support to caregivers, perhaps an example of how much $$$ could be saved in the long term by investing in the well-being of caregivers. (I’m not sure if such figures exist, I just thought it might make the argument more compelling.)
Hi Joanna, thanks for your discussion on the issue of caregivers. Your discussion really gave a good perception of the seriousness of caregivers problems. This is a very passionate topic for me because I am a caregiver to my mother. There have been so many researches indicating the reality of issues associated with caregivers’ burnout. Base on your evidences supporting the need to prevent caregivers’ burnout, I realized, from personal experiences, that providing support to caregivers in our society is a paramount area of need. Our caregivers need support almost as much as the patient does. This issue needs a lot public awareness, education, and support. As stated in a CNN report on caregivers burnout syndrome, the National Consensus Development Conference on Caregiving, states that, many exhausted, ill caregivers today don’t seek help because they don’t realize that they have a recognizable condition. They stated that the most common psychological symptoms of caregiver syndrome are depression, anxiety, and anger. These can create further health problems for the patients and the community if these problems are not understood and recognizes by people that need help.
Hello Joanna,
I could not agree with you more. Caregivers are increasingly becoming vital in providing home care services for their working children and relatives. Special attention ought to be given to the contributions they make to society. Programs that cater to the needs and concerns of caregivers should be prioritize and enhance so as to serve as a motivation for their invaluable services.