Barbara thinks that physicians can help people identify themselves as caregivers and help them find support.
Transcript
I would love it if healthcare professionals had at their fingertips almost a package of “Okay here, you are a caregiver. Here are options for you of places to go and places to ask for help; some of them are online, some of them are support groups in town, […] or an agency that’s able to link you up with all of these things.” And if a physician can help you recognize yourself as being a caregiver, because so many times you’re a daughter or a wife or a husband or a whatever, and you forget that link that you can be a caregiving daughter, or a caregiving wife. And sometimes it takes a physician to say those words. So yeah, I would love physicians and medical office assistants to have a package like that; to have posters in their office about “Are you a family caregiver?” “Do you give care to a neighbour, a relative, a friend who is frail, has a disability? Are you taking them meals, are you doing their banking? Then you are a caregiver and here’s a list of organizations that you can contact to help you out with that.” That’s probably one of the biggest things.
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- Advice for professionals and society – BarbaraBarbara thinks that physicians can help people identify themselves as caregivers and help them find support.