Letting Go of My Father is an article about author’s, Johnathan Rauch, father who suffers with Parkinson’s disease (2010). Rauch struggles with coming to the realization that his father is declining in heath and coming near one of life’s certainties. His father insisted that he could handle living on his own and taking care of himself, but proved within three days that he was nowhere near able to take care of himself. Rauch had to put his entire life on hold in order to take care of his father, in over his head taking care of his parent and ignoring his mental, emotional, and physical health. In order to cope with his personal life, Rauch began to talk to almost everyone and anyone that would listen about his father’s condition. What he learned was that he was not the only one suffering with the responsibility of taking care of a parent, many middle-aged people were struggling to cope with the decline of a parent. Cultural change is necessary in this country, Rauch is quoted, “but the cultural infrastructure is all but nonexistent.” So many people are completely unprepared for one of life’s certainties, but too stubborn to ask for help which is why a cultural change is a necessity in addressing the …show more content…
“nameless problem.” Letting Go of My Father This paper addresses the problem Rauch, and many other ‘baby-boomers,’ are facing with the certainty of the decline of a parent and how it affects their emotional, mental, physical, and social life. Correspondingly, it will strive to explain the major flaw that long-term care policies and programs in the United States suffer that has a negative effect on American caregivers and how to fix these flaws in the system with experiences and lessons learned. Impact Rauch had the best intentions when he had his father move to Washington D.C. in the spring of 2009. His father suffered from Parkinson’s disease which caused him to fall regularly, lose his driving abilities, and overall caused him to be weak and unable to take care of himself (Rauch 2010). Rauch’s father is much like the aging population today, wanting to age in the comfort of their own home and having the independence of taking care of themselves. His father was persistent on living alone and Rauch was willing to give it a try, but after a few days Rauch checked in on his father to find that living alone was not an option. Three days after he arrived, Rauch found that his father had made a mess in the bathroom and in the kitchen, unable to clean it up (Rauch 2010). Rauch began to take steps in order to take care of his father but still give him the independence he wanted by providing aids for him such as adult diapers, an emergency-alert button, regular housekeeping by the maintenance man, and periodic visits from a social worker with the Jewish Social Service Agency (Rauch 2010). He, like many other Americans, thought he was ready for the responsibility that came along with his father’s condition, but he would learn that without professional help both of their health conditions would decline. Rauch began to become stressed and aggravated with his father’s condition because it was beginning to interfere with his life. Finding doctors for him and getting him to appointments and coordinating escalating medical needs swallowed entire days (Rauch 2010). Rauch’s physical and mental health began to be impacted by his father’s condition and he began to realize that he had to talk to someone, anyone, that would listen. After learning that he was not alone facing this problem with taking care of a parent, he began to realize that finding professional help would be the most beneficial for him and his father’s health. The impact that family caregiving has on many is tremendous. Family caregiving affects your physical and mental health, along with your social and professional life. Factors such as these contribute to the feelings of burden that comes along with family caregiving. I personally am going through this struggle myself right now with my grandmother who suffers from Alzheimer’s. The past five years my family has slowly watched her decline, but this past year she started to decline at a faster rate than we expected. My father owns his own business and is the only child of hers to live in Kentucky, so we as a family took it upon ourselves to take care of my grandma. Our family has been impacted financially, physically, and mentally by taking on the role of caregiver. Caregiver Challenge Family caregiving is often associated with words such as demanding, stressful, and even burdensome.
According to Dr. Richard Schultz and Dr. Paula Sherwood, family caregiving has an adverse and even positive outcome in a chronic stress experience (Schultz and Sherwood 2009). Caregiving has the same features as a chronical stress experience creating physical and mental strain throughout the process. It is accompanied by the feelings of helplessness, uncertainty, and uncontrollability. Family caregivers are the main source of support and home care, taking part in services that would cost them from a professional. Professionals, such as nurses and social workers, are now giving advice and support to family caregivers teaching them ways to provide the care that is
needed. Lessons Learned This story prepared me for the inevitable. My experience with my grandmother, and watching my father endure the stress of becoming a family caregiver has motivated me to start making a change in the way I look at the major flaw of the U.S. healthcare culture. Nursing homes are looked at as places “to go die” instead of a source to receive care that is needed in order to maintain your health. Elderly adults, and even their family, don’t want to be put in a nursing home because they feel that living on their own will allow them to maintain their independence and motivate them to control their health. My family thought that with my grandmother that if she went in to the nursing home her condition would decline rapidly instead of her living with a caregiver. We did not expect all of the challenges that we had to face and the toll that it took on us. Culture change is a major flaw in the system today and overcoming it will help ease the stress and misunderstanding of family caregiving. Future The threats that are to come with family caregiving in the future and the factors that will drive demand for family care between now and the future include: growth in the older population, extended years of disability, reduced economic status, health reform, and a decline in the number of formal caregivers. In order to be able to meet the demand for family care, a plan of action must be taken. With the number of elderly people needing care increasing, we can only expect that the number of family caregivers increase as well. Overcoming these threats can be achieved by addressing challenges associated with technology to support older adults and caregivers, identifying ways that caregivers can work with relatives and health care providers to make a care plan, exploration of how families are coping with the complexity of caregiving and establishing support groups. Conclusion The nation is facing the overwhelming problem of being unprepared and unsupported when it comes to giving the care needed to the aging population. Family caregiving is uncontrollable and described as a burden, but the number of professional caregivers is slowly dwindling. Elderly adults insist that living independently is what is the best thing for them and family caregiving allows them to have the help and support that they need in the comfort of their home. Caregiving can be beneficial by enabling caregivers to feel good about themselves, learn new skills, and strengthen family relationships, but it also has negative effects on their mental and physical health (Vitaliano 2003). Family caregiving is the “backbone” of the health and long-term care system and is a critical national health care resource (Schulz and Sherwood 2008).
(Davidson, F. G.) Due to the nature of dementia being a neuropsychological disorder, those affected by the disease tend to look like they will not require much care, which, in reality, they often require more care than the caregiver originally expected, leading to stress and burnout. Another effect caused by this can be the caregiver blaming themselves by feeling like they are failing to give proper care, which, in reality, can often be very far from the truth. If the caregiver does not receive help from anyone else, the task of watching over the victim becomes a daunting twenty for hour task. Sometimes, the caregiver won’t be allowed quality sleep. Over 66 percent of home caregivers suffer from some form of psychological or physical illness. The most common illness that is resulted from giving care to Alzheimer’s disease is depression. The caregiver needs to monitor their emotional well-being as well as the well-being as the person that they are giving care to. Usually, giving care to those with dementia is actually more stressful than giving care to those with cancer. When the caregiver is a family member and not a professional, the emotional toll is often even greater. It is important for caregivers to remember that they need to take care of themselves first and
Parents who are supported in their caregiving role are better able to nurture their children, who have a better chance to grow up to be productive, contributing members of society. Research has demonstrated that programs such as parenting education, support groups, and home visiting are effective and produce positive, significant results for parents and their children. (p. 75)
"Forgiving My Father", a poem written by Lucille Clifton, is about a relationship between a daughter and her father. Lucille Clifton is a female poet/author for several poems and children 's book. She was born in 1936 "in a small town near Buffalo, New York"; she attended Howard University, and she earned her teaching degree at Fredonia State Teacher 's College. She won numerous awards and recognitions, including an Emmy, for her works. She died in 2010 after a long battle with cancer. "Forgiving My Father" is part of the collection in her 1980 book Two-Headed Woman (Schilb and Clifford 270). In this poem, Clifton described a daughter 's memories of her father led her to become angry with him, sympathize with him, and eventually forgive him.
Also, the whole family needs to come to term with the health condition, make change in priorities and schedule, and keep the family. For example, it can be much more stressful for a young or a newly married couple because they may have more experience to overcome life's difficulties. As a result, as with individual maturation, family development can be delayed or even revert to a previous level of functioning (Hockenberry, p 762.) Therefore, health care providers need to apply family development theory while planning care for a child and family with chronic health condition. Indeed, family centered care should be a part of that intervention. Parents and family members have huge and comprehensive caregiving responsibilities for their chronically ill child at home or at hospital. Moreover, the main goal taking care of chronic ill child is to “minimize the progression of the disease and maximize the child’s physical, cognitive, psychological potential” (Hockenberry, p 763). Therefore, it is essential to family being part of the child care to give highest quality of care. On the other hand, we are as a part of the health care provider need to give attention to all
Roth, D. L., Perkins, M., Wadley, V. G., Temple, E. M., & Haley, W. E. (2009). Family Caregiving and Emotional Strain: Associations with Quality of Life in a Large National Sample of Middle-Aged and Older Adults. Quality of Life Research , 18, 679-688.
Furthermore, assessment of the caregiver’s perception of the health and functional status of the patient, the preparedness of the caregiver for the job of caregiving is assessed.
Holding onto grudges for a long period of time can sometimes make a person forget that there are some things you have to let go. Forgiveness is the understanding of situations and realizing that they may not be as serious as it was thought to be before. Just from the title of the poem, Forgiving My Father, it could be perceived as a poem that focuses on forgiveness, yet it’s main focus is on the negative qualities of Clifton 's father, who appears to have been a poor patriarch to both his wife and daughter through his own irresponsibility. The father was taking more than he was giving and was portrayed as an poor father and husband. The daughter explains that her mother gave her all and her father had nothing to offer. In Lucille Clifton’s , “Forgiving my Father,” Clifton’s endless stress from her deceased parents pushed her to forgive their wrongdoings and let go of the burden.
Kaakinen, J. R., Gedaly-Duff, V., Coehlo, D. P., & Harmon Hanson, S. M. (2010). Family Health Care Nursing: Theory, Practice and Research. (4th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis .
Primary caregivers are given an opportunity to take care of their loved ones; however, this job comes with a lot of stress and its consequences (Tsai, 2003). Primary caregivers take care of those with a chronic illness such as a family member or friend, are given a task that is so immense that it induces a lot of stress. In the previous decades, many research articles have developed studies which focused on stressors that were associated with the task of being the primary caregiver; yet, a theory surrounding this topic has not been developed until the early 2000s. Tsai (2003) developed the Theory of Caregiver Stress based on the Roy Adaptation Model to identify the caregiver’s response, perceptions, and adaptations to the stress and burden that primary caregiver’s experience.
-Sonnenberg, E. 2008.Caregiver Stress: The Impact of Chronic Disease on the Family. Available at: http://www.beliefnet.com/healthandhealing/getcontent.aspx?cid=74397.Access date 21 December 2013.
An Explication of “Forgiving My Father” When I first read “Forgiving My Father,” by Lucille Clifton, I was confused about the meaning of the poem. I thought that it was going to be about her forgiving her father, but I never noticed her actually forgiving her father. By analyzing the overall message, the diction, and the structure of “forgiving my father,” I realized that she never forgives her father. Although she tried to forgive him, there was too much hate, and eventually she walked away from his grave. The diction that Clifton uses in the poem is very interesting.
In health care, there are many different approaches throughout the field of nursing. When considering the field of family nursing, there are four different approaches to caring for patients. This paper will discuss the different approaches along with a scenario that covers that approach. The approaches that will be discussed include family as a context, family as a client, family as a system, and family as a component to society. Each of these scenarios are approach differently within the field of nursing.
Caregiving is an essential and very necessary aspect of the medical field. However, caregiving is also one of the most strenuous and stressful positions that exists. The patients require constant supervision, precise care and an extremely high level of patience, tolerance and skill. Eventually, this type of care begins to take a physical, emotional and financial toll on the caregiver. Because of the adverse effects of this profession, the Theory of Caregiver Stress was developed to aid those working in this difficult profession.
My father passed away in 1991, two weeks before Christmas. I was 25 at the time but until then I had not grown up. I was still an ignorant youth that only cared about finding the next party. My role model was now gone, forcing me to reevaluate the direction my life was heading. I needed to reexamine some of the lessons he taught me through the years.
Upagya Rai (Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Christ University). During my internship the previous summer I had observed how parents or spouses of the clients would sit for hours waiting for their loved ones to finish their assessments or go through treatment. This got me wondering about the psychological health of the primary caregivers. I was specifically interested in how the feeling of resentment played a role in the relationship between the client and the caregiver and if it ever affected the quality of care provided. After a thorough review of literature I decided to conduct a study based on the Phenomenological Research Design. 17 participants were selected who then completed the Caregiver Resentment Scale; 7 individuals out of the 17 who scored high on resentment were then invited for a semi-structured qualitative interview. Four global themes were generated after a Thematic Analysis of the data. Results of the study suggested that although primary caregivers faced various stressors in the caregiving situation, this did not significantly affect the relationship with the patient or the quality of care provided, as there were a lot of protective and cultural factors at play. The research had important implications in the field of Psycho-Oncology and