728x90
my iParenting
From Our Sponsors
e-newsletters
Sign up to receive our free weekly e-newsletters

new terms of use
new privacy policy
award-winning products
The iParenting Media Awards program helps parents find the best products for their families.
Home › Articles › Living with Incontinence › Suzanne Mintz

Suzanne Mintz

Standing up for Caregivers

By Lyn Mettler

Pages:  1  2  3  

And while you may have varying situations – caring for family members of different ages and with different medical conditions – everyone experiences similar emotions such as sadness and grief, anger and frustration, according to Mintz. "The common bond between all caregivers is its emotional impact," she says.

One way to lessen isolation and find out about other family caregivers, she says, is to become part of the National Family Caregiver Story Project on the NFCA's Web site at www.thefamilycaregiver.org/who. "Adding your story to the database lets you be part of NFCA's advocacy effort because your stories let us show policy makers and others in power what family caregiving is all about," she says.

Besides talking with others, Mintz also suggests keeping a journal or writing poetry as other outlets for expressing your feelings.

A Voice for the Unheard

One of the main missions of the NFCA is to advocate on behalf of the 50 million Americans who are caring for a loved one. "NFCA was created to educate, support, empower and speak up for America's family caregivers so that all caregiving families can have a better quality of life," says Mintz.

Why does she feel it's important to speak up on caregivers' behalves? "Because family caregiving is hard, but it doesn't have to be as hard as it is," she says. "Our health care system is totally unresponsive to the needs of caregiving families. It is expensive to be a caregiving family. These things can be changed but only if family caregivers recognize their power and begin to use it."

NFC's Principles of Family Caregiver Self-Advocacy

The NFCA offers the following four principles of self-advocacy, an approach to caregiving that Mintz says has helped thousands of caregivers throughout the years:

1. Choose to Take Charge of Your Life – Make active choices about how you are going to deal with the circumstances of your life.

2. Love, Honor and Value Yourself – Learn to give to yourself in addition to giving to others.

3. Define the Help You Need – Reach out and ask for help, and know how to accept it when it is offered.

4. Stand Up and Be Counted – Acknowledge your role as a family caregiver, because that bonds you with the millions of other family caregivers in America who share many of the same worries and concerns.


Pages:  1  2  3