Family Caregiver: Don’t do it alone: focuses on some of the common stresses of being a family caregiver, ideas on how to prioritize your well-being and where to go for more support.
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There are over 1 million family caregivers in BC who provide 80% of the care for their family members and friends. You are essential to the health care system, yet as you may have experienced, family caregivers go unnoticed. We want to make it easier for you to navigate the complicated health care system, communicate with health care professionals and your care recipient, set clear boundaries so you don’t burn out, and get the emotional support you need.
Even though caregiving is emotionally and physically demanding, even downright exhausting, it is one of the most rewarding gifts you can ever give to another person.
The important thing to remember is you don’t have to embark on this journey alone—in truth, to help you maintain your resilience in order to continue to show up for your care recipient, it is helpful to embrace lots of avenues of support. Plan to have a network of support by enlisting the help of your family, friends and community organizations. We’re ready to travel the distance with you.
In this Flipbook, we will detail some of the stresses and challenges that commonly arise in caregiving and tips for balancing the demands of caring for someone while taking care of your own physical, mental, social and emotional health. This document also includes an exercise to check in on your own wellbeing and to reflect on what changes you could make to reduce the caregiver burnout and increase resilience, and it summarizes the importance of self-care (what is it and what could that look like in your busy life?) and how action planning can be a useful mindset and strategy as a caregiver.
Finally, this flipbook will provide a list of resources that you can reach out to as part of your community of support so that you do not have to embark on this caregiving journey alone.