Caregivers of all types face significant challenges when caring for a loved one. If you are providing care or have a loved one in hospice in Salt Lake City – or anywhere in northern Utah – you face additional challenges that can make you feel overwhelmed.
Learning ways to cope with these challenges can provide invaluable relief, benefitting not only you but also your family, friends and the hospice patient you’re caring for.
The compassionate, experienced team at Suncrest Home Health and Hospice in Salt Lake City is committed to providing the highest standards of care for your loved one, helping ensure both the physical and emotional well-being of patients and their families.
We understand the challenges that family caregivers face. Here, we provide some practical, real-world strategies to help you cope with these challenges as you help your loved one negotiate this difficult time.
Common Caregiver Challenges & Potential Solutions
Various research studies have explored the challenges faced by caregivers. These range in nature and severity but, in many cases, can lead to a high level of psychological distress, including the possibility for chronic anxiety and depression. Psychological distress can contribute significantly to the decline of physical health and, according to the research, can lead to chronic disease and even shorten the caregiver’s life expectancy.
Coping, which is defined as the steps and processes necessary to adapt to stressful or psychologically distressing situations, allows the individual to allocate the necessary resources to respond to the challenges they’re facing. Research proves that, by employing effective coping strategies, caregivers can significantly reduce the distress they experience and help offset the physical and psychological risks that they face.
Developing effective coping strategies can pose a challenge, however. Caregivers often feel guilty about spending the time and effort necessary to focus on themselves and their needs. Like the familiar analogy of airplane oxygen masks, though, you have to see to your own needs before you can adequately assist others.
To that end, the Suncrest Home Health and Hospice team has assembled a few of our favorite tips for developing effective caregiver coping strategies.
Tip 1: Practice Relaxation
When you have little room for downtime, it is important to identify and practice proactive strategies for relaxing. In other words, don’t wait around, hoping you’ll be able to grab a few moments of rest here and there. Commit to making it a practice to engage in specific activities that you find relaxing. This can be virtually anything from reading a book or listening to music to taking a long, hot bath or simply napping. Set daily or weekly goals for your practice and stick to them.
Tip 2: Schedule “Me Time”
Whether it’s relaxing or taking care of your own obligations, make a point of scheduling time for yourself. It might take a little effort, but honor this time you schedule for yourself, no matter what might pop up. It’s often easy to brush off taking the time you set aside for yourself. Building it into your daily schedule – including entering this time on your scheduling calendar of choice – will help remind you of the importance of taking care of yourself.
Tip 3: Seek Out Support
Support for caregivers is critical to their well-being. Unfortunately, the level of support you need rarely (if ever) comes to you on its own. You must seek out that support in order to get the level you need. Some potential options include caregiver support groups, professional counselors and online resources. Another great source for helping you get the support you need is your professional hospice care provider.
Tip 4: Acknowledge Limitations
Despite whatever superpowers you might wish you had, it is important for you to acknowledge your humanity and its limitations. You simply cannot be all things to all people, all the time. You will experience periods of frustration, anger, sadness, and an entire range of other feelings that might make you uncomfortable. Give yourself permission to experience these totally normal emotions and, no matter what might go through your mind, allow yourself permission to process what you’re feeling.
Tip 5: Get Caregiving Help
You can’t do it all yourself, no matter how badly you might want to. Even if you already have assistance from trusted friends and other family members, professional caregiving help can become imperative.
In many cases, the patient has needs that must be met by caregiving or medical professionals. Even if that’s not necessarily the case in your scenario, seeking the assistance of a professional home hospice agency can provide the critical support you need to properly care for your loved one.
Finding the Best Hospice Care in Salt Lake City for Your Needs
To find the right professional hospice care provider in Salt Lake City, look for one with a competent and compassionate care team. The best hospice services take into account the needs of the patient but also the well-being of family members and loved ones.
Professional hospice care from the Suncrest team can be the solution you’ve been looking for. We have an unwavering commitment to exceptional patient care, as well as to ensuring that family members have their needs met. Our team consists of medical professionals, aides, therapists, spiritual advisors, and more. This allows us to provide the best possible comfort and care, as your loved one transitions from this life to the next.
Contact us today to learn more about us, or to speak directly with someone regarding hospice care in Salt Lake City or the surrounding communities of northern Utah.
