Tuesday, February 16, 2016
United Hospital Fund's Levine on Healthcare's Toll on Caregivers
Caregivers see themselves as daughters, sons, spouses and friends — not necessarily as “caregivers,” Carol Levine, director of the New York City-based United Hospital Fund’s Families and Health Care Project, explained in a commentary in the same issue. They may feel uncomfortable or too overwhelmed to take advantage of support groups and services, she said.
Yet, they are the ones asking questions about treatments, giving injections and managing medications — a stressful role that can take a toll on their well-being, she said.
“By expecting family members to do all this stuff with relatively little support, we’ve created a multigenerational set of health problems, and so I think it’s extremely concerning,” Levine said...