Seeking Relief With Respite Care
If you are a kinship caregiver hose loved one suffers from a debilitating and gradually worsening illness, you know just how frightening the diagnosis is. This dread does not only relate to the feared effects on patient, but also to the suddenly changing role the patient’s loved one is sure to take on. There is a world of difference between being a companionable family member or even just friend who ones in a while looks in on the patient to make sure all is well and the role of the kinship caregiver is thrust into a care giving capacity that may be a 24-7 proposition with no end in sight.
Seeking relief with respite care is vital for the caregiver who unexpectedly comprehends the gravity of the role she or he had to take on and which in some cases may signify an absolute turnaround of the roles that were previously established in life. As the caregiver uses respite care to seek relief from the implications of this situation, the other contingency covered is the fact that an illness that may be slow at the onset may suddenly expand exponentially and within a short period of time the patient may be in need of serious care while the caregiver has scarcely had time to adjust to the changes in the roles.
Respite care offers not only the personal relief for the caregiver, but also the time needed to attend support group meetings and to learn more about how effectively offer the care that is needed. In some cases respite care is also the time away needed for the caregiver to recognize that she or he has come precariously close to reaching the end of the proverbial rope and that unless something changes or additional help is enlisted, she or he is going to be incapable of coping with more of what is yet to come – according to the diagnosis offered. While some have thus been led to see respite care actually as a way for a kinship caregiver to neglect the responsibilities taken on, those who are more astute recognize it as a means of preventing elder abuse and other issues related to the inadequate, resentful, and neglectful care of patients.
Those who realize that perhaps it is in the patient’s best interest to find a long term care facility may now also use the time afforded them with the help of respite care to search out an appropriate venue for the future care of the patient. At the same time, other family members may decide to also step in and participate in the care of the loved one and thus the respite care relief that previously helped just one kinship caregiver may now be used by more family members seeking out avenues to also be of service. Respite care in this way helps to facilitate the logistics of multi caregiver responsibility sharing and at the same time provides the relief valve needed when the schedule runs awry and an unforeseen problem occurs.
