Family caregivers of Alzheimer's patients mainly include spouses, children, children's spouses, grandchildren and other relatives. Compared with other diseases, caregivers of Alzheimer's Harmo's disease have greater stress and more serious psychological consumption. This is determined by the characteristics of the disease. Patients with different degrees of Alzheimer's disease show different conditions. Early patients are mainly characterized by recent memory loss and cognitive decline. Mid-term patients are mainly manifested as emotional instability, easy to get angry, suspicious, wandering around day and night, and need family assistance in daily life. Late patients will not recognize their family members, incontinence, and completely lose their ability to take care of themselves.
Facing the relatives with Alzheimer's disease, the family members who take care of the patients day and night will be affected by various pressures, so they have to face physical, psychological and social health problems. The health and living conditions of these family caregivers directly determine the quality of life of dementia patients. Family caregivers can be said to be invisible patients, which deserve social attention and care.
Four stressful and exhausted family caregivers
This paper makes such an analysis of the pressure of caregivers.
The first is from physical pressure. The work of caring for Alzheimer's patients is heavy and trivial, which often affects the health of caregivers. Foreign studies have found that long-term nursing work will lead to the health degradation of caregivers. In addition, Alzheimer's disease is different from other diseases. Take the most common Alzheimer's disease as an example. Patients' daily life is often upside down day and night, and their behavior is abnormal. Sometimes they get suspicious and attack their families. Caregivers often drag their tired bodies day after day and work hard for a long time.
The second is the psychological burden. Many studies have shown that long-term care for Alzheimer's patients will have a greater impact on the psychological aspects of caregivers. American experts conducted a survey of family caregivers of dementia patients, showing that 76% caregivers have anxiety symptoms and 42% have depression symptoms.
Because of the abnormal cognitive function of Alzheimer's patients, it is very difficult to communicate between caregivers and patients. Caregivers can't get emotional support from patients, and they are suffering greatly.
In the relevant investigation, the family members of Alzheimer's patients once told the doctor: "I think this is different from other diseases. Those patients can understand that you are doing it for his own good." This is contrary to you, but I think you are hurting her. ""My husband can't talk. How do you feel about saying that two people don't communicate? I cried. I told him. I told him everything. He didn't respond. "
The third is interpersonal relationship and social pressure. Caregivers will eventually be affected physically and mentally, resulting in less social life, fewer opportunities to make friends and lack of entertainment activities. At this time, it is more difficult to meet the needs of personal or interpersonal communication or cultivate hobbies. Taking care of dementia patients is a long and bumpy road, and their withdrawal from social circles is almost inevitable. The family life of caregivers changes due to the change of roles, and the long-term family care pressure may also affect the family relationship of caregivers, resulting in tense family problems. The study also found that long-term care can also cause caregivers to have negative emotions such as anxiety and anger, which will affect their harmony with others.
The fourth is economic pressure. Long-term care is undoubtedly a heavy burden for families with average economy. In particular, patients' expenditure on medical care and nursing is essential, and if there is no savings, it will be even worse for caregivers. Hospital expenses, nanny expenses, family living expenses, etc. It may become a heavy economic burden. It is even worse for families without medical insurance in rural areas or cities.
expert opinion/advice
Caregivers should take care of themselves first.
In the face of various pressures, there are Alzheimer's patients who need to be taken care of at home. How to prevent family members from becoming invisible victims of diseases? The doctor reminded that caregivers should take care of themselves before taking care of patients. For example, caregivers must be psychologically prepared for their own health, including understanding the symptoms of dementia and cultivating nursing skills, knowing how to deal with stress and negative emotions, dealing with abnormal behavior of dementia, reasonably arranging their own rest time, and looking for available assistance resources (such as relatives, friends and community resources).
In the specific operation, caregivers should carefully observe whether they often feel tired, have a headache or often catch a cold and other symptoms of decreased immunity; Lack of motivation and interest; Do you often feel helpless and powerless? Whether you can't control your negative emotions; Whether it is becoming more and more strange to the outside world, relatives and friends; Whether you can't concentrate; Whether there is hopeless life, even suicidal thoughts, and so on. Arrange rest as much as possible, have more contact with people, participate in interpersonal communication, seek help from resources, learn stress management, and have a more positive attitude towards life. Find your own problems and seek professional help in time.
Society should provide resources and help.
In their work, doctors have done a lot of research on this kind of people, including the situation in relatively developed areas such as Hong Kong. He pointed out that most of the care provided by family caregivers is free, which saves the government a lot of money. The government also has the responsibility to help them, relieve the pressure brought by care and maintain the health level of family caregivers. For example, establish institutions and organizations to provide services such as consultation, education and assistance for family caregivers. The government should encourage the development of community services in policy and broaden the demand for community services, such as establishing community service centers to provide temporary care and day care services for caregivers. In addition, it is also important to regularly assess the health status and needs of family caregivers and provide them with relevant services according to their health level and nursing needs. For example, using the mode of group psychological counseling, caregivers support groups are established for caregivers in community service centers to relieve psychological pressure, impart nursing knowledge and help each other. "Being old is also old. Caring for others means caring for our future. No one can guarantee that we will not suffer from Alzheimer's disease."