Stroke Victims Apparently Are Not Only Cause of
Stress for Caregivers
Family and friends may cause most tension for
caregivers of stroke survivors
Sept. 30, 2010 -
The biggest cause of stress for people who care for loved ones after a
stroke may not be worrying about the affected family member. Rather,
surprising new research from Northwestern Medicine shows that a lack of
understanding and help from friends and relatives causes the most stress
and the greatest threat to a caregiver's own health and well-being.
These and other
stressors, like simply trying to take care of themselves and their
families along with the demands of caregiving can cause caregivers to
report signs of anxiety and depression.
The findings
will be presented at the Association of Rehabilitation Nurses annual
educational conference Sept. 29 to Oct. 2 in Orlando, FL.
The study of 58
caregivers of stroke survivors, identified 15 types of common problems
caregivers face. The most stressful problems concerned friends and
family who criticize, ignore or don't help caregivers.
"Often families
aren't really understanding, or families might blame a caregiver for not
doing more than they're doing," said Rosemarie King, the study's lead
investigator and research professor in physical medicine and
rehabilitation at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
"We had one caregiver in our study ask if we could send her a write-up
that she could just hand to family members to explain how harassed and
stressed caregivers are."
The next most
stressful problem category was the difficulty caregivers experienced in
trying to sustain themselves and their families. Social isolation and
changes in their relationship with the stroke survivor also top
caregivers' concerns.
"Caregivers face
much anxiety about managing their own finances and taking care of their
own emotions during such a difficult time," King said. "The least
stressful area was patient-related problems. Not that those problems
aren't stressful, they were just not as stressful for this group of
caregivers."
The study
suggests that these often-overlooked concerns for caregivers are a major
source of stress. The results are critical, King noted, because other
studies, mostly of Alzheimer's caregivers, show stress and depression
seem to be associated with increased mortality.
King offers a
few tips for friends and family that may ease caregiver stress:
● Encourage
online or in-person caregiver support groups.
● Invite the
caregiver to join you at a social event.
● Ask the
caregiver how she is doing and express concern for her well-being.
● Be a
sounding board; let the caregiver bounce ideas off of you.
● Stay with
the patient for a few hours, so the caregiver can get out of the house.
● Offer to
help with specific everyday tasks, such as shopping for groceries for
the caregiver or bringing prepared meals to the home.
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