How to Care for Caregivers

Many people nowadays spend a lot of time at home, caring for their parents or elderly in general. What is little known to everyone else is that this is a tremendously stressful task, which does not hesitate to take its toll on caregivers. Now, researchers propose new ways of mitigating this type of stress.

In a series of new studies, investigators learned that a particular psychotherapy technique can be successfully used on caregivers to reduce the amount of anxiety, depression and stress they are experiencing every day.

The researchers also suggest that there are several types of caregivers. For example, those who care for patients suffering from a chronic illness are subjected to other mental health risks than those who have to look after relatives suffering from forms of dementia.

The latter are far more likely to develop depression, simply because the demands made of them are so massive. However, a psychotherapy technique called cognitive reframing can be used to mitigate the negative effects this type of pressure triggers in this group, PsychCentral reports.

“We found that changing their thinking and understanding helps a lot to allow more positive feelings to emerge and to reduce distress,” investigator Myrra Vernooij-Dassen, PhD, explains. She is based at the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center, in the Netherlands.

Details of the new investigation were published in the latest issue of the Cochrane Collaboration journal The Cochrane Library. The group represents an international collaboration dedicated to evaluating medical research in a wide variety of areas.

“Alzheimer’s is a chronic, progressive, fatal disease and caregiving at home for someone with the disease is fraught with many challenges but also rewards,” researcher Beth Kallmyer, MSW, adds.

“More research is needed overall for improving our knowledge of how to best support and educate caregivers,” he adds. Kallmyer is the senior director of constituent services for the non-profit advocacy organization Alzheimer’s Association.

Vernooij-Dassen adds that caregivers should not be left alone in their fight to take care of others. Personalized psychotherapeutic treatment is the best possible option for these individuals, but also the most complex and difficult to apply due to logistics and financial issues.

“When they need support, reframing their thinking and understanding about dementia can yield positive results,” the team leader concludes.