Tips for Caregivers
Caring for a loved one with a serious disease like cancer can be both a deeply rewarding and stressful experience. People who serve as caregivers are affected by their loved one’s diagnosis of cancer.
Here are some tips to help you deal with your experience as a caregiver:
- Give yourself and your loved one time to adjust to the diagnosis.
- Giving care to a loved one requires patience, flexibility, courage, and a sense of humor.
- Good communication is essential to learning how best to work with your loved one.
- Talk with your loved one about the future. Hope is very important.
- Plan special times together with your loved one away from the routine of treatment.
- As a caregiver, you can choose to take the primary caregiver role or, depending on the level of support from family and friends, divide it between two or more people.
- Being a caregiver can affect you emotionally, physically, and financially. If you have difficulty coping, get help. It’s okay to ask for help from others.
To better understand your loved one’s diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis, be an active participant during clinic visits.
- Recording information in a notebook during your loved one’s appointments will help you stay organized.
- Encourage your loved one to engage as much as possible in normal daily activities.
- Give yourself permission to feel emotions about your loved one’s situation, and confide in a friend or mental health professional to gain insight and support.
- Use caregiver support groups and online resources to get information and support.
- To help reduce your stress, make time for regular exercise, meditation, or some other form of relaxation.
- If care is long term, arrange for periods of relief and take a short break to recharge.
- Attempt to maintain as much of your routine as possible, but recognize that you may need to alter some of your daily activities if you are the primary caregiver.
- Remember to take care of your needs by getting adequate rest and nutrition, and take time for personal care.
- Designate someone to help field phone calls regarding your loved one’s progress.
- Allow yourself private time to do nothing or to do something that is important to you.
- Spiritual support through prayer or the guidance of a spiritual leader can be helpful.
- Rely on Touro's Cancer Center’s team of professionals for information and support.