One of the most important aspects of ensuring the long-term care of a family member with dementia is ensuring that their primary caregiver’s needs are being met as well. Avoiding burnout is one of the most important aspects of long-term caregiving, and receiving help from family, friends, neighbors, and community members is one of the best ways to ensure this.

If you think you may become a caregiver in the future, one important thing to consider is identifying where you can get help when needed before you are handling the added responsibilities of caregiving. If you are already a caregiver, whether it’s been a few weeks or a few years, have no fear — it isn’t too late for you to find help as well.

Continue reading to understand how you can care for and help a caregiver looking after your loved one with dementia.

Who Is A Caregiver?

As the name suggests, a caregiver is any individual that helps another person finish daily chores or activities. Most caregivers are individuals who help people with diseases or disabilities. However, caregivers also provide help to and watch over children and the elderly.

Being a caregiver can be an incredibly rewarding experience as you work to enrich another person’s life. You often forge special relationships with the people you care for, even if you were already close or related. However, given the often highly involved nature of caregiving, it can also develop into a stressful and overwhelming “second job”. It’s important to understand your limitations and capabilities, and take care of your mental health and your body.

How To Support And Care For A Caregiver

Caregiving is not an easy task. Regardless of how rewarding it is, it can take a huge toll on a caregiver mentally and physically. Moreover, while taking care of others, caregivers sometimes end up neglecting their needs. Therefore, go through the following tips to understand how you can care for and help a caregiver.

Share The Work

A good method to ease the load off a caregiver would be to share the work they have to finish on their “to-do” or patient’s routine list. Try delegating tasks to yourself — things you know you are already good at and can handle competently. These don’t need to be difficult, complex tasks such as assisting with changing or toileting. It can be as simple as volunteering to run to the grocery store for the patient or caregiver’s household. Try to be direct in what you can offer — it helps the caregiver a lot when you can delegate the task for yourself rather than having them figure out what to give you, as they’re often overwhelmed.

Ask to see their schedule or routine to identify which tasks you’d like to help with if you aren’t sure off the top of your head, and reassure them that you are fit and able to complete the tasks you want to do once you’ve chosen them!

Spend Time With The Care Recipient

One of the easiest ways with which you can help a caregiver is by spending some time with the person who’s receiving help from them, freeing up some personal time for your hardworking caregiver. Taking the time to breathe and not worry about the next task at hand is a valuable luxury, one that most of us can point to a stressful time in our lives and say we needed more of. Give this gift to your caregiver, and help enrich the care recipient’s day as well by giving them someone new to spend time with.

Ensure The Caregiver Is Well Fed

Looking after a person all day is bound to get tiring and exhausting. Bring along snacks or meals for your visit, or offer to cook something for them and the care recipient there, as they may not have ample time to cook meals for themselves. Make sure you’re aware of any food allergies or dietary restrictions beforehand, and get an idea of what kind of food they’d like to eat!

Make Them Feel Included

You can make your caregiver feel much more included if you invite them to social outings and events. Caregivers spend most of their time looking after people and may feel socially isolated from time to time. Therefore, even if you know they can’t come to an outing with you, inviting them along still goes a long way.

Run Some Errands For Them

When you’re out to run errands, ask your caregiver if you can help run some of their errands. This will save them time, and make them feel supported and cared for. You can also offer to join the caregiver on an errand to spend some quality time together, or offer to watch the care recipient while the caregiver goes out to run errands.

Caregiving is an extremely time-consuming and overwhelming responsibility.

While rewarding, it can take a big toll on the mind and body if the caregiver doesn’t take the breaks they need. Therefore, you should try lending a helping hand whenever you can.