Despite the enormity of the American health care system, family caregivers are and will remain the primary source of care for their seriously and chronically ill (and often elderly) relatives and friends.
In today’s fast-paced, technologically driven and financially constrained health care environment, untrained, unpaid, and unsupported family members have been expected to take on ever more daunting and long-term responsibilities. They are responsible for increasingly complex tasks including medication management, care coordination, and financial and legal assistance, in addition to the emotional support that is often the special province of long-standing family ties. For details on the medical and nursing tasks performed by many of today’s family caregivers, see the AARP/United Hospital Fund report “Home Alone: Family Caregivers Providing Complex Chronic Care.”
Incorporating family caregivers into care, from information gathering and medication reconciliation, to education and training, to discharge planning and post-discharge care, can be a critical component of your work to support frail and chronically ill patients.
So get the support and training you desperately need through online support and this website’s many resourses
Thank you to NEXTSTEP IN CARE for this information at: http://www.nextstepincare.org/Provider_Home/#Four_Questions