The Angry Caregiver

  "Women average about 52 minutes per day caring for children and other family members..." From https://fortune.com/2023/08/14/women-caregiving-missed-pay/ Based on this average amount of caregiving per day, and rated at $14.55/hr (per child-care workers or home health aides), the article states that family caregiving is worth approximately $4,600 per year. The article does not state whether this is per care recipient (ie. per child or a multi-generational household). However, the metric that family caregiving only requires 52 minutes per day does not explain the negative impact of family caregiving on socio-economic vulnerabilities for caregiving families. It makes no sense. We need a time / materials study of family caregiving homes to quantify the work that is being carried out day to day to provide caregiving beds for family members who cannot fend for themselves. We need to understand how much time, effort, expenditures, and lost opportunities need to be factored to unde...

  It takes a village to raise a child. It also takes a village to care for village members who can no longer fend for themselves. It is anti-social to leave the care of a family member who cannot fend for themselves to one isolated family caregiver. It undermines health outcomes for our society when we accept this approach as a default solution. Valuing care as an integral, essential component of our healthcare system needs to include valuing family caregiving. Institutional healthcare providers are placing increasing dependence on family caregivers to make up caregiving infrastructure deficits that are arising from institutional and government care mismanagement, negligence or system deficiencies. Whether the negative socio-economic impacts of family caregiving can be attributed to mismanagement, negligence or system deficiency, the solution lies in understanding the systems imperative to improve outcomes for family caregivers. When we value care, when we value family caregiving, ...

Everyday I read of the anguish and despair of family caregivers suffering unbearable stress because they feel they are failing their families and their loved ones in their caregiving mission. Today I read the post from a young family caregiver (27) who was in so much pain they tried to take their own life instead of attempting to continue caregiving their grandmother (75). When the suicide attempt failed, they abandoned their grandmother to save themselves. To this young ex-caregiver I say, "You needed to save yourself in a situation that was destined to fail." To the healthcare system that put this young family caregiving in this situation, I say, "Shame on you." I read other posts from young and middle age family members asking if they should move their family member in with them to take on family caregiving. Or if they should move to their family member's home to help them out. To these potential family caregiving families, I say, "You need to balance yo...

SOLITARY CONFINEMENT, which is also referred to as segregation, isolation or separation, is the practice of confining an individual in custody to a cell by themselves for 22 hours or more a day, often for prolonged periods at a time.  (Google Search 2023 08 01) I read the anguished, despairing dispatches from caregivers in the frontlines of family caregiving. They are isolated, lonely, exhausted, depressed, frustrated and anxious.  In the United States, NBC News reported introduction of a bill that would broadly ban the use of solitary confinement in federal prisons, jails and detention centres by a coalition of House Democrats last month (July 2023). The measure seeks to codify into law the limitations on when and how long someone can be left isolated in a cell. In some cases the family caregivers are part of a wider family system but they do not have adequate supports from other family members and cannot afford to hire replacement paid care (in my local area the rates are $4...

  I am hoping someone can explain the economics of family caregiving to me. Do not misunderstand me. I am one of the lucky ones. My care recipient is a delightful person. She is not difficult to look after. That is, once you have become practiced at this work: Almost every morning is not your own - what is 4 / 31?

  I tell my story of family caregiving to make sense of the baffling experience of providing family caregiving infrastructure in an inadequately understood health system. It isn't that we begrudge the opportunity to take care of our frail, elder. It is that we cannot fathom the logic that puts both our frail elder and our family care infrastructure in jeopardy. The more successful we are at looking after Mom, the longer she lives and enjoys her life at home. The longer she lives, the more our family caregiving resources are depleted.  The work of caregiving is deeply personal and intimate. The caregiver is providing support for the body, mind and spirit of their care recipient. They are managing the medical, social, familial, legal, financial, and physical dimensions of the world of their care recipient. They are entrusted with this care, often with inadequate preparation and insufficient supports. There is a catastrophic disconnect between government and health system leaders...

Work in progress - dispatch from the front line. Today I am going to open the tax credit application form from the Canada Revenue Agency for families providing caregiving to family members unable to care for themselves. This is the t2201-22e form - Disability Tax Credit Certificate. It is my first time going through the form. My instructions from Mom's GP is to fill out my notes for the information he will need to complete his section, too, as I am the one who has the most information about what Mom needs on a day to day basis. This is a 16 page form. Part A - Individual's section asks for information about the person with the disability and the person claiming the disability amount. Part B - Medical Practitioner's section asks for information describing the severity and frequency of the care recipient's impairment Vision Speaking Hearing Walking Eliminating Feeding Dressing Mental Functions Cumulative Effect of Significant Limitations Life Sustaining Therapy We started...