Caregiver syndrome or caregiver stress is a condition of exhaustion, anger, rage, or guilt that results from unrelieved caring for a chronically ill dependent. The term is often used by health care professionals, but it is not listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Almost 66 million Americans are providing care to those that are ill, aged, and/or disabled for an average of 39.2 hours per week. Over 13 million caregivers are also caring for their own children as well. Caregiver syndrome is acute when caring for an individual with behavioral difficulties, such as: fecal incontinence, memory issues, sleep problems, wandering (dementia), and aggression. Typical symptoms of the caregiver include: fatigue, insomnia, stomach complaints, and so on with the most common symptom being depression. Roughly 70% of caregivers suffer from depression. Due to the deterioration (both physically and mentally) of these caregivers, health professionals have given this a name, Caregiver Syndrome.
Read more about Caregiver Syndrome: Symptoms of Chronic Stress, At Risk Populations, Caring For Those With PTSD, Questions Clinicians May Ask About Caregiver Syndrome, Do Any of These Quotes Describe How You Feel As A Caregiver?, How Do You Respond To The Stressors of Caregiving?, Issues in Health Care, Where To Find Help, REACH Program, Benefits of Caregiving
Famous quotes containing the words caregiver and/or syndrome:
“By sharing the information and observations with the caregiver, you have a chance to see your child through another pair of eyes. Because she has some distance and objectivity, a caregiver often sees things that a parent’s total involvement with her child doesn’t allow.”
—Amy Laura Dombro (20th century)
“Women are taught that their main goal in life is to serve others—first men, and later, children. This prescription leads to enormous problems, for it is supposed to be carried out as if women did not have needs of their own, as if one could serve others without simultaneously attending to one’s own interests and desires. Carried to its “perfection,” it produces the martyr syndrome or the smothering wife and mother.”
—Jean Baker Miller (20th century)