LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 30, 2011) — A study led by the University of Kentucky researcher Elaine Wittenberg-Lyles found that hospice family caregivers are “second order patients” themselves and require their own unique care needs.

The study, published in a recent issue of Qualitative Health Research, assessed the individual stressors that caregivers experience. The researchers recorded discussions between hospice caregivers and the intervention team. The caregivers were asked to identify and describe the most pressing problems or concerns they faced.

The study enrolled hospice caregivers who were 18 years of age or older and who did not have functional hearing loss, had mild to no cognitive impairment, and had at least a sixth grade education. In addition, all participants had to have access to a standard phone line. In total, the team collected discussions from 81 participants. The study was funded by the National Institute for Nursing Research.

Using a theoretical framework called Assessing Caregivers for Team interventions (ACT), the researchers coded participants’ responses in one of three categories: primary stressors, which included talk that related to the performance of caregiving tasks; secondary stressors, talk about the personal impact of performing caregiving tasks; and intrapsychic stressors, talk about their thoughts, feelings and awareness of the caregiving role.

The ACT framework has been proposed as a way to understand caregiver strain and develop customized caregiver interventions to positively affect the caregiving experience and improve outcomes. The goal of the study was to describe the variances among stressors, targeting specific concerns for caregivers.

Wittenberg-Lyles, who holds a joint appointment in the UK College of Communications and the UK Markey Cancer Center, says the study further proved that caregivers are like patients themselves and should be routinely assessed for these stressors so that interventionists may help them with personalized resources and coping strategies.

“It doesn’t matter how well educated you are,” said Wittenberg-Lyles. “When someone you love is dying and you are in a position to care for them at home, your home turns into a hospital room and key decisions need to be made hourly. Clinicians should assume that anyone going through the stress and chaos of caring for a terminally ill family member has low health literacy and high needs for education and support.”

Hospice is provided to patients who have an estimated life expectancy of six months or less. About 69 percent of hospice patients in the U.S. receive care at home from a family caregiver.

In Wittenberg-Lyles’ study, nearly one-third of the hospice patients had a cancer diagnosis, and 21 percent had a primary or secondary diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. Nearly 43 percent of caregivers were adult children of the patient, and roughly one-third were spouses/partners. In addition, an overwhelming majority of caregivers were women (79 percent).

Source: University of Kentucky

Go online at http://rabuncountyveterans.com to donate in honor or memory of a veteran, or sponsor by joining us on the 100 mile motorcycle ride on October 15th, 2011 at the Clayton City Hall parking lot at 10 a.m. All registered riders/passengers will get a free lunch and t-shirt and a magnificent tour of the Northeast Georgia mountains during beautiful leaf season.

Call the Rabun County Chamber of Commerce for more information at 706-782-4812

Happy Birthday Besse Cooper. We Georgia girls must be pretty tough, huh?

Great initiative by volunteer coordinator to enhance her volunteers’ experiences. I love the quote,
“Do you really think I would visit dying people week after week for years so I could be depressed? Give me a break.”

Visit the blog at: http://janshospicevolunteers.wordpress.com/

Thanks to @jen_c_taylor for opening the door to this video through her website: http://www.livinglifedyingdeath.com/

My first month as a medical intern, over 20 years ago, I learned many important things: how to distinguish heartburn from a heart attack, how to treat pneumonia and alcohol withdrawal, how to perform a spinal tap. What I did not learn was how to manage the stress of carrying an enormous workload and great responsibility while getting little sleep and eating a diet consisting of greasy food from the hospital cafeteria and candy bars from vending machines. Stress management was not taught because the stress of being a physician wasn’t acknowledged. When we were tired, anxious, sad, or sick, we just kept working.

Like athletes and soldiers, we physicians pride ourselves on working through injury, pain, fatigue, and assorted conditions that might sideline other professionals. For decades, doctors have sacrificed their own health and comfort for the sake of their patients, an ideal that has been reinforced by various media, from the embittered and overworked physician in the 1950s film The Last Angry Man to the scores of hard-drinking medical professionals in Scrubs, House, and Grey’s Anatomy.

It would not surprise most people to learn that doctors have higher rates of suicide, alcohol and substance abuse, and job burnout than most people. In the past we might have written off these problems as a natural consequence of doctors working long hours in a highly stressful job, an occupational hazard of people caring for sick people, regrettable but unavoidable.

Doctors could learn a lot about stress reduction from caregivers. Shouldn’t someone develop a meditation just for health care providers?