Informal Care Reflection

Informal care, care that is not given by a paid professional, is expected to increase dramatically throughout the next 30 years. This is caused in increase in life expectancy, better management of chronic conditions and the increase in the population of the aging adult. With this increase in the amount of care the role is often left to the spouse or children of the affected individual. It is often seen that with this change in role stress is often increased as the caregiver tries to balance out the unexpected change. This stress can often lead to feelings of strain, anger, and worry, which in return affects the care and relationship between the caregiver and receiver. I had the privilege to interview and discuss the day-to-day lifestyle of …show more content…
Her husband is able to perform most ADLs completely independent, but his wife has definitely seen a drastic change in the way he does things and his mood. For this journal, I will be referring to the interviewee as ED. ED was not fully aware of the drastic difference in her role towards the beginning of her husband’s decline. To her it was just the responsibilities of caring for her husband, as she had promised to do “in sickness and health” almost 60 years prior. His heart attack was one of the first major health problem he suffered from. With this diagnosis came a surgery to place a pacemaker as well as a new list of medications for him to take on a daily basis. ED now took on the task of managing his medications to ensure he taking everything correctly. She did this by filling out a weekly medi-planner that is broken down into; AM, NOON, and PM. This system proved to work well and managed his medications properly. Some of the new medications that her husband was prescribed required biweekly lab draws, this task was also EDs responsibility to schedule and transport him to the hospital. Later in the year, ED had returned to their home