Concluding our four-part series on National Family Caregivers Month, we take a look at the NFCA’s objective for this year’s honorary month - the importance of speaking up for your rights. Again, the below section is quoted from the NFCA’s website, and can be read in its entirety on their website by clicking here.
Speak Up for Your Rights
What does it mean to be an advocate? Being an advocate is a person who supports rights on behalf of another. One of the most important attributes on being an advocate for your loved one is the willingness and the ability tospeak up and keep your eye on the ultimate goal which is protecting the health and safety of you and your family. In the world of medicine it is particularly important for all of us to become as educated as possible about how the system works and therefore be in a position to get the best care possible.
It would be nice if there was an indisputable instruction manual for family caregivers to follow but since each family’s situation is unique a “one size fits all” approach just doesn’t work. On the job training tends to go with the territory of family caregiving and it often takes a great deal of time and energy to navigate through the sometimes complicated medical care labyrinth. However, it can be manageable.
NFCA encourages family caregivers to become effective advocates for our loved ones as well as ourselves as one of the first steps to making our lives more manageable. We need to become empowered, proactive, creative and resourceful in acquiring the information and the help we need.
This section is completed on the NFCA’s website by clicking here. There is also some great reading from caregiver advocates to include those of from the past like Helen Keller.
Four Principles to Live By Include:
- Believe in yourself and take charge of your life.
- Protect your health
- Reach out for help
- Speak up for your rights
Skills Needed for Advocating for your Loved One:
- Educate yourself regarding your loved ones illness/and or disability.
- Communicate efficiently and succinctly with healthcare professionals.
- Recognize you are a healthcare consumer and deserve quality healthcare.
- Understand you are an important member of the healthcare team.
- Give input and ask questions.
- Pick your battles and don’t sweat the small stuff.
- Realize that sometimes it is the squeaky wheel which produces results.Please go to our Tips and Guides section to find more information about caregiving skills.
Advocacy and Activism- There is a Difference
The difference between advocacy and activism is determined by the number of people our actions affect.
- Advocacy by an individual can directly improve care for a patient
- Activism is organized public participation that can serve a group of individuals and can alter institutional and professional policies, curricula and standards of care. Our Public Policy section talks about ongoing legislation to benefit caregivers.
We all go through varying stages of emotions when our lives have been transformed by becoming a family caregiver. Research has shown there are five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. All of these emotions are part of the framework which makes up our learning to adjust and cope to our life as a family caregiver while we watch someone we love struggle with chronic illness.
On occasion some become sufficiently angry and search for ways to deal with their anger by channeling it into a constructive endeavor and caring enough to become activists for a much larger cause. Sometimes we will find the energy and passion not only to advocate for our loved one’s well-being but for all family caregivers.
Ways to Get Involved
By coming to this web site you have been an advocate for yourself and your loved one. We also hope you will become an activist by speaking to others about the issues facing your family and others, and by writing or calling the leaders in your community, your state and at the federal level.One exciting result of family caregiving activism is the National Family Medical Leave Act. This was the result of the tireless work of activists across the country. California actually went a step further and passed a bill to actually pay for family medical leave and it came about because individuals like you thought it fundamentally important to the lives of family caregivers.
Find ideas on How to Get Involved here.
Again, this section is completed on the NFCA’s website by clicking here.
Join us later thsi week to learn more about Home Instead Senior Care’s website, www.caregiverstress.com, for more info on how caregivers can better care for themselves.
