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Minnesota Women's Press

By: Heather Reynolds

March 2010

Caregivers must remember to care for themselves as well as others

I hear it all the time in my profession: tired, worn-out women on the phone saying that they just don't know what else to do, how to squeeze one more second out of the day, one more ounce of energy out of themselves. They are career women, mothers, partners, people with their own dreams. And now they are finding themselves as caregivers-parents to their own parents. Something has got to give.

I have learned that, on average, you:

· are a 46-year-old female, married and working outside the home

· spend as much as 50 percent more time providing care than male caregivers

· may have passed up a job promotion, training or assignment to fulfill caregiving duties.

Few people are fully prepared for the conflicting emotional challenges that caregiving can place upon them-from joy to sadness, anger, frustration, a sense of loss for a loved one's declining health and your own personal losses: (friends, time or job loss). It's not uncommon to have guilt while trying to juggle personal wants and needs, the needs of our families as well as the needs of the person being caring for.

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