Http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17442030

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17442030

I am reproducing below minutes if a meeting held at Hederabad (India) on this topic recently. You may find it useful:

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DATE: 11th August, 2012

LOCATION: NIMS Millennium Block Conference Hall

AGENDA OF THE MEETING: TECHNIQUES FOR MANAGING CAREGIVER STRESS

SPEAKER: Ms. Farzana Mulla

MEMBERS PRESENT: 12

TARGET AUDIENCE / PARTICIPANTS: Care-givers, Volunteers and Staff.

MINUTES OF THE MEETING:

Key Speaker Ms. Farzana Mulla started the session by introducing

herself and the topic for the day i.e., Preventing Caregivers stress-

Part II: Psychological strategies for reducing stress followed by a

brief introduction of themselves by the attendees.

Then, there was a small introduction on dementia and a quick recap of

session-I during which she spoke about mental health needs and stress

of caregivers and how sharing their feelings with others would help

them. The outline of session-II was:

- How to manage stress

- Psychological strategies to reduce/manage stress

The Speaker highlighted that the caregivers should never try to

neglect the stress they feel by simply dismissing it as something

thatis inevitable or that it is their “duty” to take care of the

patient

because-

- The caregivers themselves will have serious problems if they

ignore stress, fall sick frequently, take time to recover and this

might further increase the stress.

- Stress within caregivers will reflect on the person you are

taking care of.

Strategies to manage stress:

1.TRY TO LOOK AND THINK OF THINGS IN A DIFFERENT WAY: Giving the first

strategy, she called upon any two caregivers for a small activity to

demonstrate the same. After the activity, she went on to explain how

the deteriorating cognitive abilities, like judgment, of the dementia

patient make them dependent on their caregivers, feeling the need of

their presence almost all the time. This small

demonstration helped the caregivers to understand the needs of a

person with dementia from the patient’s perspective.

2.IMPLICIT LEARNING: She explained what implicit learning is and

emphasized on the fact that the more you help a person with dementia,

the more helpless they tend to become. Letting patients do their work

by giving them instructions and by not offering help unless needed,

help develop/strengthen their implicit memory making them that much

independent eventually.

3.APPOINTING AN ATTENDANT: Ms. Farzana Muller suggested that

caregivers employ an attendant. She pointed out that it might take a

minimum of 2-3 weeks for a person with dementia to get familiar to a

new place or person and requested to give them time and space to

develop their relation. This would help caregivers to step little back

and create little space to do something they like to do and so they

are that much stress-relieved.

She concluded the meeting empathizing with caregivers and suggesting

some possible ways to help solve their issues.

A presentation on the Vesag watch followed.

Regards

Kishore

ARDSI Hyderabad Deccan Chapter

Thanks Padmanabha Vyasamoorthy for the information.