Many times, people routinely assist others and do not recognize themselves as caregivers. In their minds, they are just doing the things they need to do for someone they love or someone who needs a helping hand. According to AARP Resources for Caregivers and their Families and The National Alliance for Caregiving, up to 65.7 million Americans act as informal caregivers for loved ones, including children with special needs and/or adults who need assistance with their basic needs. Informal caregivers often work another job in addition to providing care and usually are not paid for the services they provide.
Johns Hopkins Bayview defines a caregiver as someone who provides any of the following services:
Are You a Caregiver? Acknowledging oneself as a caregiver is important because caregiving impacts so many aspects of life. Caregivers must maintain an awareness of self-care in order to care for others.
There are numerous organizations in Charles County that provide caregiver support, including, but not limited to:
Periodically, Charles County Public Library partners with community organizations to offer programs about valuable community resources. To stay informed of upcoming events, please sign up for our Newsletter – Charles County Public Library.
For Further Reading
Visit Charles County Public Library or search the Catalog for additional caregiver information and resources. Here are a few titles to get you started:
Caregivers Survival Guide: Caring For Yourself While Caring For a Loved One by Robert Yonover, PhD and Ellie Crowe
A practical and compassionate look at what’s needed when caring for a loved one suffering from an illness or injury.
The Caregiver Helpbook published by Powerful Tools for Caregivers
“One of the greatest challenges of being a family caregiver is maintaining one’s own physical and emotional health. This book, developed as part of the family caregiver education program, ‘Powerful Tools for Caregivers, ‘ is designed to provide caregivers with tools to increase self care and give them confidence in handling difficult situations, emotions, and decisions.”
-Back cover
Who Cares: The Hidden Crisis of Caregiving and How We Solve It by Emily Kenway
“One of the greatest challenges of being a family caregiver is maintaining one’s own physical and emotional health. This book, developed as part of the family caregiver education program, ‘Powerful Tools for Caregivers, ‘ is designed to provide caregivers with tools to increase self care and give them confidence in handling difficult situations, emotions, and decisions.”
-Back cover
The Family Caregiver’s Manual: A Practical Planning Guide to Managing the Care of Your Loved One by David Levy, JD
“In this practical manual, family caregiving expert David Levy sets forth how to evaluate priorities, understand options, and face bedrock issues (legal, financial, emotional, social), so caregivers can make wise and informed decisions for their loved ones, while gaining peace of mind from knowing they did they best they could under the circumstances.”
-Provided by Publisher
Travelers to Unimaginable Lands: Stories of Dementia, the Caregiver, and the Human Brain by Dasha Kiper
“These compelling case histories meld science and storytelling to illuminate the complex relationship between the mind of someone with dementia and the mind of the person caring for them. After getting a master’s degree in clinical psychology, Dasha Kiper became the live-in caregiver for a Holocaust survivor with Alzheimer’s disease. For a year, she endured the emotional strain of looking after a person whose condition disrupts the rules of time, order, and continuity. Inspired by her own experience and her work counseling caregivers in the subsequent decade, Kiper offers an entirely new way to understand the symbiotic relationship between patients and those tending to them. Her book is the first to examine how the workings of the “healthy” brain prevent us from adapting to and truly understanding the cognitively impaired one. In these poignant but unsentimental stories of parents and children, husbands and wives, Kiper explores the existential dilemmas created by this disease: A man believes his wife is an impostor. A woman’s imaginary friendships drive a wedge between herself and her devoted husband. Another woman’s childhood trauma emerges to torment her son. A man’s sudden Catholic piety provokes his wife. Why is taking care of a family member with dementia so difficult? Why do caregivers succumb to behaviors–arguing, blaming, insisting, taking symptoms personally–they know are counterproductive? Exploring the healthy brain’s intuitions and proclivities, Travelers to Unimaginable Lands reveals the neurological obstacles to caregiving, enumerating not only the terrible pressures the disease exerts on our closest relationships but offering solace and perspective as well.”
-Provided by Publisher
