MADISON, Wis. (Ivanhoe Newswire) — One in five people in the United States is a caregiver to a family member or friend. One in four is caring for someone with dementia. With a growing aging population, the demand for caregiving is increasing. However, the tools to provide guidance and support are not.Caregivers
“She’ll be up all night, then I’m up all night and that usually doesn’t go well.” Says Gail Morgan.
“My dad at the very end could not walk, couldn’t talk, couldn’t lift a glass of water to his mouth.” Explains Naveena Jaspal.
Caregiving is hard.
“Right now, caregivers are experiencing a lot of unmet needs. These people are giving themselves completely to the person they care for and not getting a lot of support for themselves.” States Nicole Werner, PhD, at the University of Wisconsin.
But a new web-based app is looking to ease that burden. It’s called CareVirtue. “What we’re trying to do with apps like CareVirtue is really build that caregiving team or caregiving network through the app, so that they can have support for asking for help.” Explains Professor Werner.
The app allows family members and others involved in the caregiving to communicate and share important care information. They can also track symptoms and behaviors over time. For caregivers caring for someone with dementia, that can be crucial.
“They had documentation. They felt more comfortable in sort of bringing their concerns to other parties and they felt more validated.” Says Anna Linden PhD Student at the University of Wisconsin.
A tool like this could have given Christine Nash more support when she was caring for her mother with Alzheimer’s.
“The biggest obstacle for me was siblings not believing she had Alzheimer’s. And so, it made it a struggle when I reached out to them and asked for help.” Says Christine Nash.
But now access to that support can be at the fingertips of many caregivers.
The researchers are currently testing the web-based app CareVirtue with a couple hundred caregivers. They are also developing another app with Indiana University to help caregivers with managing medications. There are several other websites like Caring Bridge and Lotsa Helping Hands that also offer support to caregivers.
Contributors to this news report include: Milvionne Chery, Producer; Roque Correa, Editor and Videographer
Sources:
https://www.caregiving.org/caregiving-in-the-us-2020/
NEW APP CARES FOR THE CAREGIVERS
REPORT #2967
BACKGROUND: A caregiver gives care, generally in a home environment, for an aging parent, spouse, other relative, or unrelated person, or for an ill, or disabled person. Some responsibilities can include transportation, grocery shopping, housework, and preparing meals. It can also involve assistance with getting dressed, getting out of bed, help with eating, and incontinence. Caregivers are referred to as either “formal” or “informal.” Formal caregivers are paid for their services and have had training and education in providing care which may include services from home health agencies and other trained professionals. Informal caregivers, also called family caregivers, are people who give care to family or friends usually without payment. The average age of a caregiver is 49 with around 66 percent being women.
(Source: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/caregiving/being-a-caregiver)
UNEXPECTED PROS AND CONS: There are some pros and cons when it comes to caring for a family member. When you’re the caregiver, you already know the likes and dislikes of your parent. You know the foods they love, the ones they hate, what they like to do, and their favorite places to go. So, it can be less stressful. However, caregiving can put strain on a family relationship. It is not unusual to have family members telling you how to do things, when to do them, and what you’re doing wrong. Another positive is the quality of time you’ll spend with your mom or dad, which in turn can strengthen the relationship. Your parents may be reluctant to let you help. So, if you push too hard, there’s the chance of irritating them which can lead to cruel outbursts that hurt feelings and make it harder to be enthusiastic about providing care. And the financial burden of being a family caregiver is commonly not thought about. Switching to part-time hours may cause lose in benefits only full-time workers get.
(Source: https://www.loveinhomeseniorcare.com/unexpected-pros-and-cons-to-being-a-family-caregiver/)
MOBILE APPS ON THE HORIZON: The rise of mobile apps for caregivers has the potential to meet caregivers’ needs, but the quality of apps is unknown. Researchers set out to study the quality of publicly available apps for caregivers of people living with Alzheimer disease and related dementias (ADRD) and identify design features of low and high-quality apps to guide future research and user-centered app development. They searched the Apple App and Google Play stores with criteria that included apps needing to be available in those venues, accessible to users out of the box, and primarily intended for use by an informal caregiver of a person living with ADRD. The included apps were then evaluated through the Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS) using 23 items across 5 dimensions: engagement, functionality, aesthetics, information, and subjective quality. They ended up evaluating 17 apps and found, on average, apps are of minimally acceptable quality. The design features of high-quality apps that were identified in the study will provide the foundation for benchmarking these standards.
(Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35348467/)
* For More Information, Contact:
Nicole E. Werner, PhD
University of Wisconsin-Madison
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