News & Events

Prevention of Caregivers Burnout



The monthly caregiver's meeting was held on Saturday, 13th August, 2011 from
2.30 – 3.30 pm at Memory Clinic, Ground floor, Millennium Block, NIMS.

This month's topic was "Prevention of Caregivers Burnout ". The audience comprised of family members and ARDSI volunteers. Mr.Kotibabu (Project Manager, ARDSI Hyderabad Deccan), and Ms. Safiya Fathima (Psychologist , ARDSI Hyderabad Deccan,  ), conducted workshop on the topic.

Mr. Kotibabu initiated the session by asking the participants to explore their main problems. Then the participants came up with some identified problems, which were noted down on chart. The common problems are: 1. Sleepless nights 2. Repetitative talk, 3. Loss of patience (increasing B.P.Levels of Caregiver), 4.Aggressiveness, 5. Difficulty in regularly monitoring the patients, 6. Difficulty in understanding patient needs. 7. Denouncing help.

After identifying the problems, participants were divided into two groups, where Group 1 addressed first four problems and Group 2 addressed rest of the problems. Following are the solutions they have given.

  1. Sleepless nights - Rotational care, Take rest in Daytime, arrange a special caretaker.
  2. Repetitive talk - Caregiver should accept the circumstances and situation of the patient, meditation may reduce the stress level of the caregiver.
  3. Loss of patience [caregivers health problem] - Mediation and acceptance, love and affection on the patient and empathetically thinking might help the caregiver.
  4. Aggressiveness - Caregivers should try to find out the reasons triggering their aggressiveness.
  5. Difficulty in regular monitoring - Rotational care, arrange a trained attendant.
  6. Difficulty in understanding patients - Observe their body language and
    non-verbal cues.
  7. Denouncing help – Try to understand the situations where the patient is denouncing help and the caregiver should be aware of their own body
    language and interaction with patient.

Ms. Safiya summarized all the solutions by adding her inputs. The meeting concluded with a question and answer session.

 

back