Outside Activities Essential to Caregiver Mental Health

Can caregivers get so drawn into the world of the care receiver that their mental health is at risk? I received a private email from a reader that made me think more deeply about this possibility. The reader said she’d been caring for her mother in her mother’s home for three years. The mother has middle stage Alzheimer’s and can be quite "creative" about reality. The caregiver told me that she does what experts often suggest and tries to join her mother in her mother’s dementia world.  She loves her mother and doesn’t mind that she spends most of her time caring for her, but is afraid that she is becoming so drawn into her caregiving that she may be losing touch with the non-caregiving world. Read more on HealthCentral about how caregivers can benefit from outside activities: Support a caregiver or jump start discussion in support groups with real stories - for bulk orders of Minding Our Elders e-mail Carol I'm honored to be among over 50 presenters in this summit who want to help make your caregiving journey easier. Click the image to learn more:   Related articles When a Loved One With Dementia Thinks You're Stealing (Minding Our Elders®) New Possibility of Studying How Alzheimer's Disease Affects the Brain at Different Ages The Stages of Alzheimer's and the Caregiver's Role (Minding Our Elders®)                Related StoriesCaring for Aging Par...
Source: Minding Our Elders - Category: Geriatrics Authors: Source Type: blogs