Caregiving

“ These everyday heroes, living quietly among us in families and communities across the country, are the major source of long-term care in America. By providing billions of dollars' worth of caregiving services each year, they dramatically reduce the demands on our Nation's health care system and make an extraordinary contribution to the quality of life of their loved ones. ”

“ Many family caregivers provide innumerable services to people in need, including meal preparation, shopping, finance management, transportation, and companionship. In addition, they often manage both simple and complex healthcare issues, and coordinate medical appointments to ensure continuity of care. Caregivers must often be available around the clock, which can require them to forgo or postpone priorities for their own lives. Through sacrificial love, caregivers endure emotional, physical, and financial strain for the sake of another. ”

“ Care is usually provided by family members, often wives, daughters, and daughters-in-law, who may sacrifice their own employment opportunities to bring joy and comfort into the lives of loved ones. Selflessly offering their energy and love to those in need, family caregivers have earned our heartfelt gratitude and profound respect. ”

“ Ought it not, therefore, to be the care of every nurse and every parent, not only to protect their nurslings from injury, but to be well assured that their own officious services be not the greatest evils the helpless creatures can suffer? ”

“ As we work to build a culture of service, responsibility, and compassion, caregivers continue to bring our families and communities together. Through their efforts to assist loved ones in need, family caregivers demonstrate the true spirit of our Nation. ”

“ All day long I find so much to interest me, and so many thoughts about my children fill my mind, that I hardly find time to think of my own feelings. Care is a blessing."
With what a patient, heavenly smile this is said! How much of life's true philosophy is contained in that closing sentence! Yes, care is a blessing. What countless thousands would, but for daily care, be unutterably miserable. And yet we are ever trying to throw off care; to rise into positions where we will be free from action or duty. ”

“ Through a national network of state and area agencies on aging, the program provides information to caregivers about available counseling, support groups, training, and other services. In addition, the program provides respite care to temporarily relieve caregivers.
Family caregivers deserve our support and respect. They tirelessly assume demanding responsibilities for the benefit of those they love. During this challenging time for our Nation, their selfless heroism demonstrates the quiet determination and courage of the American spirit. ”

“ This new coverage will help family caregivers, who often inform or make medical decisions for those they care for, by ensuring that their loved ones receive the best health care available.
Every day, family caregivers sacrifice their own needs to offer their loved ones the opportunity to live with dignity and independence in familiar surroundings. Their love, selflessness, and devotion inspire us all and demonstrate the compassionate spirit of America. ”

“ The true value of the role that caregivers play in the lives of America's families is immeasurable. Providing physical comfort and emotional reassurance, these strong and selfless people care for loved ones who can no longer care for themselves. The vast majority of caregivers are family members-often older relatives-and women provide most of the informal care that their families receive. ”

“ In the next place, instead of allowing the mind to dwell on the faults of those who minister to our comfort and convenience, cultivate a habit of making every possible benevo437lent allowance and palliation. Say to yourself, “Poor girl! she has never been instructed either by parents or employers. Nobody has felt any interest in the formation of her habits, or kindly sought to rectify her faults. Why should I expect her to do those things well which no one has taken any care to teach her? She has no parent or friend now to aid her but myself. ”

“ In the world today what calls for more of love, sympathy, learning, sacrifice, and long-suffering than the care of children, the preparation of food, the cleansing and ordering of the home, personal attendance and companionship, the care of bodies and their raiment—what greater, more intimate, more holy Services are there than these? ”

“ The public care little for medical titles, or for those artificial distinctions which, for the more convenient subdivision of labour, we have established amongst ourselves; they look for men who will prove useful to them in time of need—men in whom they can place confidence, whom they may admit without fear into the bosom of their families, whose feelings and behaviour are those of gentlemen, who are skilled to relieve their bodily sufferings, and to whom they may open the secrets of their hearts and turn for sympathy and advice in seasons of affliction. ”

“ Each day millions of Americans provide nursing care and other forms of assistance to relatives who are incapacitated by age, illness, or disability. These family caregivers not only help to support loved ones who might otherwise be forced to live in an institutional setting but also exemplify the kind of unconditional love and commitment that is the essence of family life. ”

“ Family caregivers perform their various tasks freely and without compensation—and often at considerable sacrifice to themselves. Many of these individuals assist relatives in need while juggling the traditional demands of home, family, and career. The Department of Health and Human Services reports that nearly one-third of our Nation's family caregivers are older Americans—the spouses and siblings of the frail elderly. ”

“ The statistics describing caregivers in America today tell an extraordinary story of generosity and compassion. Nearly one in four households is involved in caring for a relative or other loved one in need, providing a range of assistance from personal care to household help to transportation. Thirty percent of caregivers are caring for two or more people, and 64 percent hold down jobs while providing such care. Caregivers share not only their time, but also their resources, spending some $2 billion a month of their own assets for groceries, medicine, and other aid. ”

“ These trials are, however, but a part of the experience of an attendant in caring for the insane, for there is associated in this care much that is satisfactory and pleasurable. It is a satisfaction to know that duty has been well done; to be able to care for the sick; to do something to alleviate suffering; to tenderly watch over and soothe the dying; it is a pleasure to see a patient improving, going on to recovery, and finally able to return home cured. ”

“ Caregivers understand how much we need and depend on one another. Indeed, Americans understand that our strength as a Nation has always flowed from the sturdy bonds of family. In recognition of this fact, we all must work harder to ensure that our Nation's caregivers receive the support and assistance they deserve. ”

“ CAREGIVER- The term `caregiver' means an individual who has the responsibility for the care of an elder, either voluntarily, by contract, by receipt of payment for care, or as a result of the operation of law, and means a family member or other individual who provides (on behalf of such individual or of a public or private agency, organization, or institution) compensated or uncompensated care to an elder who needs supportive services in any setting. ”

“ Each day across America, some 22 million caregivers and volunteers dedicate themselves to improving the qualify of life for older family members, friends, and neighbors. By providing personal care, housekeeping, transportation, and innumerable other services and assistance, these caregivers enable many older Americans to remain in their own homes and communities, maintaining a precious measure of dignity and independence. ”

“ Care should be exercised lest any hindrance, should, for any reason, be placed in the way of those who have, whether young or old, rich or poor, so spontaneously dedicated themselves to so urgent and holy a mission. ”

“ And as such is the care which is spent by us on the support of our bodies, what manner of men ought we to show ourselves on behalf of our children and of the mother that is to rear them? Ought we not most readily to strain every nerve? ”

“ Thus are we abundantly taught that one of the most sacred duties of the Christian family is the training of its inmates to care and kind attention to the sick.
Every woman who has the care of young children, or of a large family, is frequently called upon to advise what shall be done for some one who is indisposed, and often in circumstances where she must trust solely to her own judgment. ”

“ Special care should be taken to quiet fears in these directions; they should be assured that they are groundless, told they will be allowed to communicate with their friends, that they will be visited by their family, and that all their interests will be cared for. ”

“ Being cared for is not only a condition for survival, it is also a prerequisite for human development and well-being. "All of us have urgent needs for care at various stages in our lives, as a consequence of infancy, illness, impairment or other vulnerabilities." ”

“ During this season when we give thanks for the many blessings in our lives, let us take time to acknowledge the loving support of the millions of family caregivers across our country who provide for the needs of parents, spouses, and other loved ones who are no longer able to care for themselves. These remarkable individuals give their utmost to ensure that their relatives can remain in the comforting, familiar surroundings of their homes and communities. ”

“ The unselfish devotion of family caregivers affirms the importance of respecting the dignity of life in all stages and underscores the importance of the family unit. Family caregivers empower their spouses, parents, and siblings to maintain ties with family, friends, and community. ”

“ God has hitherto been pleased to spare all those whom I love, and to grant them the enjoyment of strength and health. This is my first lonely watching by a sick-bed, and I feel deeply the sadness and awfulness of the office.... Now that I am beginning to know what care and sorrow really are, I look back upon my past life and see what reason I have to be thankful for the few and light trials with which I have been visited. My poor dear aunt's illness is giving us a professional respite, for which my faculties, physical and mental, are very grateful. ”

“ Each must bear his own burden, is the earthly sentence on the sick and suffering. Happy those who can cast their care on the Saviour, and realize that He careth for them.
This sweet experience was not gained without an effort, even by so spiritual a nature as Charlotte Elliott. Let none of my young readers think that the careful training of pious parents, the possession of a gentle temper and kindly natural disposition, will be enough in themselves, to secure comfort during the tedious, wearing trials of oft-recurring or long-continued sickness. ”

“ CONCLUDING PRAYER
O FAITHFUL servants of God and powerful protectors of man, Holy Helpers! Since Our Lord appointed you the heavenly advocates for our needs on earth, I confidently turn to you for help in my distress. Countless numbers praise you for aiding them with counsel in doubt, with consolation in anxiety, with health in illness, with safety in danger, with delivery from prison, and with help and assistance in all tribulations. Therefore I, too, have recourse to you, and implore you not to refuse me your aid. ”

“ Within the context of caring as process, Roach (1992, 1984) says that caring entails the human capacity to care, the calling forth of this ability in ourselves and others, the responsivity to something or someone that matters, and the actualizing of the power to care. Even though our human nature is to be caring, the full expression of this varies with the lived experience of being human. The process of bringing forth this capability can be nurtured through concern and respect for person as person. ”

“ Several adults whose parents had become disabled told stories of caring for parents in ways that preserved cherished role relationships. These adults understood that their caring required extra effort to avoid infantalization of the parent but felt that without that extra effort, attention would be given to certain needs but adequate caring would not be given. ”

“ Whoever has been guilty of voluntary excesses must patiently submit both to the painful workings of nature and needful severities of medicine, in order to his cure. Still he is entitled to a moderate share of whatever alleviating accommodations this fair mansion of his merciful Parent affords, consistent with his recovery. ”

“ It stands to reason that those who have brought us up and watched over us in helpless infancy or in sickness, instructed us and fitted us to enter on the active duties of life, must feel far greater interest in our future welfare than can any other person. ”

“ The mistake of all that medical talk lies in the very fact that it connects the idea of health with the idea of care. What has health to do with care? Health has to do with carelessness. In special and abnormal cases it is necessary to have care. ”

“ But the sick should consider that the service performed for them is done to the honor of God, and should not make it a burden for the brothers who attend them. Those who labor in this service, on their part, should endure it patiently, because it redounds to their greater reward. The abbot should make it his especial care that no one suffers neglect. A special room shall be assigned to the sick, and they shall be given pious, diligent, and careful attendants. ”