Caregiver: Do you ever wish you could be trained to do what you do?
When I care for my husband, I often wonder if there isn’t a better and less exhausting way to do the things I do. I learned much of how to do things from observing the nurses and aides at my mom’s and husband’s facilities. But, there was never any formal training. What do you all think about a community college offering classes for people on caregiving? It could be taught by nursing assistants, nurses, social workers, and even someone who could speak about Medicaid and Medicare and what they cover. It would teach people how to turn someone in bed, bed bathing, bed changing, using lifts and other equipment, etc., how to do home therapy and deal with less than cooperative patients, as well as offering support to us caregivers, or know where we could find groups. I know I’d take the course if it were offered. Would you?
Good luck and don't forget to take care of you too.
Caregiving for family is fraught with emotional ups and downs and other family members being involved, etc. To me, caring for my FIL was pretty easy, also for my daddy, caring for my mother has been one long nightmare.
In truth, after you've learned the "basics" you really just have to adapt the caregiving to the person. Every client was a different animal, so to speak. You learn along the way. This board has been a huge help to me in the process.
Back when I was younger, a gym rat, I might have tackled caregiving courses, since I had the energy and the strength to possible be hands-on care for my parents. My issue would be to quit my long term career, that I had worked very hard to accomplish, to be a caregiver. Plus would I have the patience to do this type of work?
Now if there were courses regarding Medicare/Medicaid, the difference between Independent Living, Assisted Living, Memory Care and long-term-care/nursing home that would have been valuable information.
Also financial information on what to expect when one's parents start to age. I never in my life thought that getting older was going to be so expensive.
I'd love to go to a class and I've researched them, but in my case, I just can't get away often enough or reliably enough to sign up.
Caregivers are always busy and taking time for a class would have to be very worthwhile. I would structure the course in segments, without any requirement to sign up for all segments. I never needed to know how to give a bed bath or how to use lift equipment. I'd skip those sessions. But it sure would have been nice to have suggestions about how to get Mom to shower or bathe! I would attend a session on swallowing difficulties or one generally on eating and nutrition, but not on bed changing.
I love the idea of classes, or short training sessions, especially with these features:
1) Sessions are short and each concentrates on specific skills. Caregivers can pick and choose.
2) There are concurrent sessions for people with dementia. Maybe just showing a movie in an adjacent room, or serving a snack. Not a "lesson" but a day-sitting service.
Many caregiver support groups provide some of these benefits. Mine has had professionals in to talk about Medicaid, or the legal aspects of caregiving. We've never had anyone in to demonstrate how to change an adult incontinence product, but we've had people ask and get answers like "there is a wonderful video on youtube ..."