What to Expect as a Caregiver To An Ill Family Member

Abstract

Family caregiving is one of the most challenging activities involving mental, emotional, and physical distress; it involves sacrificing normal lives, incomes, and marriages, to take care of their relatives in confined places. Providing care to patients with chronic illnesses, such as stroke, heart diseases, brain tumors, diabetes, dementia, and other forms of permanent disabilities, is quite demanding. It requires energy, commitment, financial and emotional wellbeing, requiring full-time attention, involving sleepless nights and restless days. Being a sole family care provider, I understand the pain faced by other family care providers. Therefore, I believe this paper raises important solutions that can be utilized to address the problems we (family care providers) face resulting in physical and psychological stressors. Various programs can be designed at federal and provincial government levels, including enhancing financial assistance to the family care providers and hospital programs such as staff training on caregiver programs. Implementing a combination of the suggested strategies can help overcome the challenges faced by family caregivers and improve the care given to patients with chronic illnesses.