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Show DEALING WITH CARE-PROVIDER BURN-OUT V ; JTjr' note: The following article is 1hti in a series discussing services available through home health care. Services Ser-vices include registered nurses, physical therapists, nurses' aides, speech therapists, occupational therapists and medical social workers. By JENNIFER PETERSON Staff Writer Margie Pearson spends every day tending her father. He can no longer cook for himself, needs help dressing dress-ing and bathing and, since he can not get out very often, also needs company. though she is happy to be able send this valuable time with her fauier, Pearson often grows impatient impa-tient and tired. Many days all she wants to do is run away, but she can't leave for more than an hour Ouid feels guilty if she does take a jreak, Pearson is one of thousands of adults nationwide who suffer from bum-out as a care-giver, a situation which leaves many worn out and full of guilt. Although it is a fairly recent phenomenon, the trend toward home health care as an alternative to rest homes, nursing homes and other care facilities creates more cases of bum-out among care-givers every year. Although bum-out in such situations situa-tions is not uncommon, Jean Weinberger, a medical social service ser-vice worker for Creekside Home Health Care, said many people are reluctant to seek help. Weinberger emphasized that although al-though programs such as Creekside are meant for the patient, family members who act as care-givers are just as Likely to benefit from the services, resources and support groups the programs can provide. "Sometimes it's just the stress. If the care-giver burns out, chances are the patient will end up in a nursing nurs-ing home," Weinberger explained. For years, the idea of ending up in a nursing home has been considered con-sidered a living hell. Although Weinberger said homes have improved im-proved and the state ombudsman keeps track of each facility, many people consider the move a fate worse than death. As a result, some families will not even consider alternatives to home health. But every situation is different, Weinberger explained, and many times a nursing home is not the answer. an-swer. "No place is perfect No nursing home is perfect, but sometimes neither is home. If you drop Mother on the floor or can't keep up, the nursing home may be a better place for her, Weinberger said. But sometimes, she said, there is just no answer. "Because we are living so long now, we have 85-year-old spouses taking care of 85-year-old spouses or 70-year-olds taking care of their 90-some-year-old mothers. We are living longer, but the quality of life Pearson's need to leave the house i is not unusual. "When you're stressed in care-giving, care-giving, you take on the 'fight or flight syndrome and your body wears itself down. By learning things as simple as taking deep breaths you can reduce that wear," Weinberger explained. Sometimes simply organizing a schedule for family members to take turns caring for the older adults helps relieve stress on the primary care-giver. "Sometime the family doesn't even know what's happening," Weinberger said. "Sometimes people peo-ple will have five kids, but they still live alone and spend all their time alone because their kids are spread all over the states." Other stress relievers include support groups, one of which has begun in Bountiful. The groups give individuals not only a place to express themselves and hear other people's feelings, but also desperately des-perately needed time out of the house. "A lot of times if you can get a group going, suddenly these people find that they are not the only ones feeling tired and guilty. There are other people in similar positions feeling the same way and there's no need to feel so bad about it," Weinberger said. Although Davis County has one of the fastest growing grow-ing populations of older adults of any county in Utah, resources and assistance are far below par, Weinberger said. In Davis County, there is only one support group of any kind for care-givers and only seven senior companions individuals who visit homebound adults while caregivers care-givers attend meetings, go shopping or simply take some time out for themselves. Of the seven, only one of those lives in Bountiful. "There are many necessities here that are not acknowledged and that we need. I see a real need in the community for more resources," Weinberger said. People who are at really high risk, Weinberger said, are those who are at home alone. They are at risk physically (falling or getting injured in-jured or ill), mentally (depression), nutritionally (many people can no longer fix healthy meals for themselves them-selves but continue to live alone) as well as socially (loneliness and inactivity). in-activity). Although Weinberger has begun the Bountiful support group, she does not see a lot of improvement in the near future. "The problem is that there will be more people not only in Bountiful, Boun-tiful, but all over as an aging society," socie-ty," she said. "What will we do with all the older people if we don't get resources now? ' ' Weinberger's group meets every Tuesday at 2 p.m. in the small auditorium of the Bountiful City J Library. It is free to the public. j I i i v We have 85-year-old spouses taking care of 85-year-old spouses or 70-year-olds taking care of their 90-some-year-old mothers. We are living longer but the quality of life isnft that much better." Jean Weinberger L Social Service Worker isn't that much better," Weinberger said. "Sometimes the care-giver dies before the patient just because there's so much stress." If a nurse is assisting a family in which she detects such dangerous levels of stress, the nurse can then call in a social worker. At this point the social worker does a skilled social assessment, evaluates the situation and offers some options. "For some reasons, they often don't use the options. There may have been a promise made earlier in life that they would never put each other in a nursing home oi something. Then, when it becomes too much to handle, they feel guilty for even considering outside help," Weinberger explained. Contrary to popular belief, a social worker's job is not to tell people that they need to institutionalize institu-tionalize their loved ones. In fact, Weinberger spends the majority of her days assessing home care situa- i tions and determining which ser- vices would benefit the patients and i their families. In general, social i workers involved in the field of home health care spend most of their time finding resources and information in-formation for individuals who are already receiving some sort of care. "Social workers don't go in and look for problems so we can send the state after people. We have to be called in by another party and then we just assess the situation. Most of the time we help people find services, ser-vices, financial services and facilities that they can use," Weinberger explained. For instance, if an individual no longer has a need for nursing, he or 4 4 she may still feel an occasional need for assistance bathing, cooking, cook-ing, cleaning up around the house or various other chores that they may no longer be able to do. The social worker can dig through resources for institutions or individuals who can provide the necessary services, community facilities or counseling. "We don't even think about stuff like taking a bath, fixing our hair or fixing a sandwich. We just take it for granted until all of a sudden we can't do those things for ourselves anymore," Weinberger said. |