Redwood Caregiver Client Finds Support She Needs

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Mary is a frail 87-year-old woman with chronic lung disease caring for her 90-year-old husband with Alzheimer’s disease. Mary provides assistance to her husband in all activities of daily living, including personal care. Due to his inability to understand his need for help, Mary’s husband often becomes combative and resists necessary assistance. Mary describes feeling both physically and emotionally exhausted by her husband’s challenging dementia-related behaviors. 

When she called Redwood Caregiver Resource Center (RCRC) for the first time, she explained that her adult children live out of town, and visit when they can, but are unable to provide regular assistance with caregiving. Mary said she would love to get some help with her husband’s care, but their limited finances prevented her from accessing in-home caregiving services. Mary had to take her confused husband with her everywhere she went, including the grocery store, the pharmacy, and her own medical appointments. Mary reported skipping her own appointments or going without food in the house on occasion, if her husband was resistant to going out. Additionally, because she could not safely leave her husband unattended, Mary was unable to take advantage of services, such as support groups or classes for herself.

An RCRC Family Consultant completed an intake and assessment with Mary to identify her caregiving challenges. They worked together to formulate an action plan designed to target these challenges. RCRC provided Mary with a grant to purchase respite care, which enabled Mary to have some time away from caregiving, and focus on self-care. Mary now takes advantage of the local RCRC caregiver support group and classes, where she states she not only learns helpful information about self-care and dementia-related behavior management, but where she also makes friends and confidants. “I am no longer alone in this,” she says. Mary still faces ongoing caregiving challenges, but reports that she feels much better equipped to manage them, because of the skills and support she gains through Redwood Caregiver Resource Center.