Being a Care Giver is Hard Work

Miriam Cahn, a social worker with VON, spoke about the 20% of the population that are informal caregivers who provide 80% of the home care to family members. If their efforts were paid for, the cost would be 5 billion dollars. The most common caregiver is an adult child caring for a parent and is often caught in the sandwich, trying to work with his or her own children and parents.

Club member Ken read a job description for the position of caregiver that Miriam provided and it was clearly a position that no one would apply for because of the demanding nature of the work and the long hours. Mariam told us that the caregiver job is very stressful, especially for women. Those of us who are caregivers and those of us who know caregivers should watch for caregiver burn out. Help them feel appreciated and not alone; use the CCAC to provide day care, overnight or long term respite care; use meals on wheels and other services available in the community. She distributed a number of handout resources and reminded us that, "Martyrs have a good reputation but often live short lives."