The 3 Be’s of Caregiving
University of Texas Health Science Center
Be Prepared:
- What does the future hold for your loved one?
- What do you expect their care needs be?
- What community services are available to provide the needed care?
- If in-home care will not meet the needs, what other options are available?
- What can your loved one afford in terms of care?
- If budget restrictions are a concern, what other community programs and/or services are available to offset the cost of care?
Be Honest:
- What are you limits as a caregiver?
- Can family members, friends or community services assist you in caregiving?
- If not, what other options are available?
- How long can you afford (emotionally, financially, physically) to provide care in your home or in your loved one’s home?
Be Well:
- What interests and hobbies are important to you?
- How can you maintain these?
- How can you integrate a fitness program into your routine?
- How can you maintain a regular support system?
- How can you release all those negative emotions of caregiving in a healthy way?
- How can you better express your feelings and your beliefs so that family members and friends understand your goals as a caregiver?
- In what ways can you bring joy and laughter into your life and your loved one’s on a regular basis?
Thoughts & a Prayer
By: Rev. James E. Miller
There will be times in your caregiving when you will wonder if you have made a difference. You will come to discover that because of what you did, however little or however disappointing it seemed at the time, you paved the way that led to life, even in the midst of death.
There will be times in your caregiving when you will come away with the humble knowledge that however much the other person has gained, you have gained just as much. All you can do is acknowledge your gratitude.
There will be times in your caregiving when in the act of accepting, you will be accepted in a way you have not before. In the act of comforting another, you will be unexpectedly comforted. In the act of dying with another, you will be reborn.
There will be times in your caregiving when you experience firsthand what it means to really love. You’ll know that it has less to do with words being spoken and more to do with hearts being opened and being shared.
There will be times in our caregiving when however tired you are, you’re ever so alive. However separate you are, you’re ever so connected. Whatever brokenness you’ve experienced, you’ve never felt more whole.
Through the discipline of your caregiving, you will discover what generations before you have discovered and what generations after you will learn.
In being a blessing for another, you are blessed.
In being a vehicle for growth, you grow.
In being a conduit for healing, you are healed.
And in holding out the promise that, no matter what has happened, transformation is still possible, then you yourself can be transformed.
It happens when you as caregiver and care receiver alike transform one another. One of you loves and one of you is loved and you’re both the same.
And you will come to know that this transformation is not really yours; it comes from far beyond you.
You will realize, if you do not already, that you are cared for on the grandest scale possible. And the most fitting response you can make is a prayer that contains only four words:
“Thank you. Thank you.”
Carolyn Bates is an ICF Certified Personal Life Coach
Specializing in successful life transitions and retirement for people 50 and older
Visit her website at www.coachinglifedesign.com
Your first consultation is always complimentary 830-598-8961
“Coaching is my passion. The success of my clients, my reward.”
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