Caregiver
Your New Role | Eat Well | Exercise | Laugh | Sleep | How to Lift Someone | Signs of Stress | Get Additional Help | Take a Walk | Find Someone to Talk With | Join a Support Group | Time for Yourself | Respite Care | Younger Caregiver

Consider adult day care or respite services to ease the day-to-day demands of caregiving.

Adult Day Care.
Read Jian's story about how she helped her dad feel better about going to day care.

Take your loved one to an adult day care center several afternoons or days each week. A regular schedule will be good for your loved one and for you, knowing you'll have time to yourself.

Respite care is a service that provides temporary care for an older person.

• Get help with a specific task such as bathing your loved one.
• Hire a companion to come visit with your loved one once a week so you can get out by yourself.
• Have health care providers care for your relative at home or in an extended care facility while you go on vacation.

Links to other sites with information on this topic:

Respite: What Caregivers Need Most is one of many factsheets available from the U.S. Administration on Aging.

Getting "Respite" Care or Extra Help at Home
This chapter from the Home Care Guide to Advanced Cancer by the American College of Physicians provides an excellent discussion for those new to the concept of respite care.

The 36-hour day: a family guide to caring for persons with Alzheimer disease, related dementing illnesses, and memory loss in later life, by Nancy L. Mace, Peter V. Rabins (2001). Warner Books; Revised edition.
This book focuses on helping families cope with this progressive and irreversible disease. Besides tips on how to care for the demented during the various stages of the disease (for example, place a picture of a toilet on the bathroom door), the text discusses the different kinds of help available and how to seek it.