In Hospice many of the people who provide the 24 care for the patient are family members.  While they are not ill, being on duty constantly for a sick family member is emotionally, physically, and spiritually draining.  So each person who provides care needs to come up with plans for their own self-care.  Another word we use for this is “respite”.  Respite is a chance to be off-duty and do something meaningful to you.  For some situations this takes the form of a scheduled relief person to come into the home so the care-giver can get out of the house to attend an event or simply to relax.  The longer the illness goes on the more important it is for the person providing care to intentionally think about their own needs and make plans to meet them.  I always encourage people to get short breaks from their home care responsibility and paint it for them in terms of caring for themselves is also a way of caring for the patient because patients don’t want to perceive themselves as being a burden to those they love.  When I hear stories of people getting their first respite break and how energized it empowered them to be I congratulate them.  Inside I feel glad that they decided to take care of their own needs as well as those of the patient.

This brings me to my question for the day, “What do you need to do today to care for yourself?”  It is a question that none of us should overlook whether or not we are providing health care to a family member.