Carer Burnout and Fatigue
It goes without saying that caring for individuals who live with disabilities is a profoundly noble task – it is fulfilling and rewarding but often can be accompanied by a set of factors that lead to physical, emotional, as well as psychological exhaustion of the carer. Because it is a demanding and active role, it can more often than not lead to fatigue and eventual burnout. When it comes to disability accommodation and supported independent living under the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), it becomes especially important to address, understand, and help deal with carer burnout. In this blog, we will explore the reasons, indications, and solutions for carer fatigue and burnout to help people. Before we dive into the causes and signs, it is crucial to understand: What exactly is carer burnout? Carer burnout or fatigue is when the caregiving person reaches a level of physical as well as mental enervation because of the persistent and intense responsibilities of caregiving. Such exhaustion can stem from having to meet the relentless and recurring demands of providing care consistently. Such burnout becomes particularly predominant if there is not enough support or respite available at the caregiver’s disposal. Anyone in a caregiving role can suffer from burnout – family members, volunteers, or even professional carers working with disability home care services. Causes for carer burnout Emotional responsibility It is needless to say caring for an individual with a disability is an intense responsibility. It can often lead to severe emotional stress as it involves having to deal with a number of complex and difficult situations. This can cause the caregivers to feel overwhelmed, frustrated, and even guilty at times – these feelings if piled up can lead to eventual burnout. Physical demands The NDIS Accommodation offers personalised assistance with self-care for individuals with disabilities. One can get help with every task one needs – however, from the perspective of the caregiver, it can involve a number of physically demanding tasks such as managing sizeable medical equipment, as well as providing manual support to patients ie. lifting them, bathing, and more. Insufficient support A lot of times, caregivers can feel isolated and burdened with responsibility. If this feeling is perpetuated, they can feel unsupported and invalidated. They might also feel like there is an inadequacy of resources available at their disposal, insufficient and inefficient respite care, as well as emotional support. Signs for carer burnout to look out for When it comes to identifying signs of carer burnout, be it a family member or a professional employed within the disability field, there are some clear-cut indications you must keep an eye out for. Caregivers can exhibit a number of physical symptoms. Examples of burnout can look like; frequently falling sick, consistent weariness and fatigue, difficulty falling asleep, as well as changes in weight and appetite. Other than the above mentioned, the other signs you might also notice are them being more irritable or moodier than usual, anxious, or generally emotionally low. They might also have difficulties concentrating with a lingering sense of forgetfulness and may appear more frequently overwhelmed. You might also notice them withdrawing from social situations, procrastinating in personal activities, or even employing unhealthy coping mechanisms. Ways to tackle carer burnout Ensure to seek support When it comes to NDIS accommodation and services, carers can seek professional registered health professionals who can help them address this issue better. (reword its not an “issue) “Therapists” can guide them to feeling better by sharing healthy coping strategies and techniques. Other than this, caregivers can also participate in support groups that can lessen the feelings of loneliness by encouraging shared experiences as well as practical bits of advice on how to deal with the overwhelm. Carers can also seek support by way of respite services that enable them to take some time off and relax, and be sure that their loved ones are safe and supported. Support professionals can seek additional supports from their work place. Each company can provide additional free counselling to assist in prevention and care or carer burnout. Prioritise self-care Disability home care services offer support to people with disability, however, even the caregivers require support and breaks from time to time. To do so and avoid burnout, carers should prioritise self-care – they should focus on maintaining a healthy lifestyle, consuming balanced meals, and getting proper sleep. They can also practice meditation and such other relaxation techniques to regulate their emotional responses. Focus on smaller tasks If the carer focuses on all their tasks as a whole, it is sure to overwhelm them. Instead, they should simply break down the tasks into manageable chunks and focus on getting them done. They can make to-do lists for the day and go through them in order to be organised and calm. Final thoughts To sum it up, as far as supported independent living and disability accommodations are concerned, the NDIS also recognises the challenges faced by caregivers. It is crucial to ensure that the carers do not run out of energy, leading to their burnout. It becomes crucial to address this concern and create an environment of compassion and appreciation even for the carers.
Caring For A Child With A Disability – Challenges And Choosing The Right Service Provider
Parenting is not easy, but the challenges get magnified when you are parenting a child with a disability (or disabilities). From frequent doctor trips, expensive treatment, and being active 24/7 to lack of socializing, worrisome excursions, and suffering from chronic depression, the challenges of caring for a child with a disability are enormous. In this blog, we feature challenges faced by parents of children with special needs and how the right service provider can be of paramount help. Limited accessibility for special needs One of the biggest challenges faced by families of disabled children is the lack of basic amenities. From ramp access, narrow or uneven footpaths and thresholds, inadequate toilets, or even restrooms and changing places – the list is endless! The limited accessibility isolates families with special children as they cannot visit the places they love. Staggering childcare expenses Raising a child with a disability means lesser income and higher expenses. Unlike other families, where both parents are working and have a sound financial backup, families with special children have limited options. Moreover, medicines, health insurance premiums, and hospitalization costs are regular expenditures that cannot be ignored. However, you can seek help from National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) which provides reasonable support to families with disabled children. You can also visit Services Australia – People with disability for multiple benefits. Fewer adaptive clothing options We still have lesser options for kids’ functional clothes. While there are few sellers of inclusive or adaptive clothing for disabled children online, they aren’t sold in stores or supermarkets. Bullying Children with disabilities are more prone to being bullied. Bullying instances can range from yelling, making fun of kids with special needs, pushing them from stairs, and so on. In several serious cases, bullying can mean life or death to a child with a disability! Thus, creating a safe environment for a child with disabilities is imperative. You can reach out to resources like Australian Human Rights Commission which protects disabled students against harassment and bully. Dealing with such challenges and many more is not easy. Therefore, if you have a child with a disability, we suggest you choose the disability service providers. You must choose the service provider that suits your child and you. While the right service provider is the one that meets your child’s special needs, here are a few tips to identify the best disability service, provider: NDIS-Accredited: As mentioned earlier in the blog, National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) assists Australians suffering from significant and permanent disabilities. So, it is important to check whether the service provider is a registered NDIS provider and honours the scheme. Experience: The disability support provider you choose must be experienced enough to assist your child and meet your goal simultaneously. They should also be able to guide you through their terms and conditions and service agreements, among other relevant details. Customer-centred approach: Pick a service provider that listens and understands your needs and is willing to provide the requisite assistance. Never settle for a disability support provider that focuses more on monetary aspects. Instead, opt for those who genuinely take efforts to help you regardless of the severity of your situation or request. Credibility-check: Seek recommendations about disability support providers from friends, family, your General Practitioner, or your LAC (local area coordinator). You can also read the reviews on TrustPilot, Google, and Facebook to make an informed decision. Conclusion Any disability cannot stop a child from achieving something big in life. With proper care and support, they can live their best lives. NDIS ensures that people living with disabilities in Australia get timely and much-needed support for better living. So, before you finalize a disability support provider scrutinize them well and go for the one that you feel is good. You can contact Cosy Home Care for reputable and specialized services.
Supported Independent Living: A switch in the right direction
Living with a disability or a mental illness can change how you look at the world around you. Most importantly – how you fit into it. A simple option like living independently can be quite a faraway dream, just because of the presence of this disability. But it doesn’t have to be. One of the problems that all of us are faced with today is that we compare our lives to everyone else’s. As encouraging as this can sometimes be sometimes to challenge you to try and do more, or do something new; it can also be quite damaging. You are the only one going through what you are. Don’t ignore your need and goals. How can I live independently if I’m sometimes scared to be alone? If I want to have my own space but occasionally would like to enjoy company? What do I do if I’m happy spending a lot of time by myself but know that I need help with some things? Questions like these are asked more frequently than you think, by people with a disability and without! Supported Independent Living (SIL) could be just up your alley. At Cosy Home & Community Care, we understand how the backstories in our heads can sometimes keep us from making choices that would help put us more in control of our lives. If you do want to live independently, we offer Supported Independent Living (SIL) services that can help you confidently make the switch. Not only are there options for the ways you can adopt SIL, but you will also have a dedicated team of support to help you through the process, whenever you do need it- 24/7. All you have to do is express interest in including Supported Independent Living (SIL) in your NDIS plan at the planning meeting, and we’ll take care of the rest. What kind of Supported Independent Living (SIL) service suits me best? Cosy Home & Community Care knows that uncontrollable circumstances are no reason to accept that this is how it’s going to be. Support through your journey is the main objective that flows through Supported Independent Living (SIL). We offer three main plans under the SIL services, that are as unique as people’s personalities. Even within these options, there is always room to tailor the service of your choice according to your lifestyle requirements and goals. We understand that you should be the one getting the best out of the service you choose. The services provided under the SIL are: Independent Living: You don’t need to change houses to live independently. Our team is available to help you in your own home, through the lifestyle you lead and assist you in learning independent living activities of your choice. You can also avail of this service to learn a new skill like a new way to cook, how to budget, for support to travel and ways to access the community. Shared Living: In this shared independent living option, you get to move into a shared home with people who share interests like you. High compatibility is also a key factor that helps match you to find the right shared living space. In addition to having good company in your living space while still living independently, support is tailored according to the skills you want to develop. In-Home Respite Care: This option allows you to live in your own home with an available team to assist you with whatever you need. You choose the tasks and how long you’d like the team to assist you with them. This option is also designed for people who want to give their personal and family carers a break from how much they help in the house. Breaks are important- for you and the people around you. Skills you can learn with Supported Independent Living (SIL) Availing of any of the options within Supported Independent Living (SIL) will equip you with skills to be able to live fuller lives with more choice. We are always interested in understanding you more to help you better. We also encourage you to step forward with skills you may have in mind that you want to learn and may not be on the list. Household maintenance Budgeting and Finance Management Cooking, cleaning and shopping Using public transport for social and medical appointments Becoming more active in social and recreational activities while developing strong lasting community connections What Supported Independent Living (SIL) can do for me? Making the choice to switch to Supported Independent Living (SIL) with Cosy Home & Community Care can not only equip you with to live with more control over your own life; but also empower you through it. Empowering Independence: You are at the centre of our support programs and they are designed to help you realise how you are the centre of your own life. Regaining the sense of autonomy through your journey not only helps develop skills but enhances the personal elements that go with any activity. Some of these personal elements are ways to communicate, confidence through challenges, openness to new experiences, the ability to try new social and recreational activities, the feeling of freedom, etc. Support and Guidance: Living with a disability shouldn’t become a crutch upon your dreams. We intend our support and guidance provided help you understand that although the way to achieve your dream may need tweaking, the dream never dies- you just change how you want it to live. As you learn to become more independent, you have on your way, experts experienced in different fields to consult and work with no matter what you journey through. We also offer extended physical support for those needing equipment to help function through the day. It is important to remember how this support is an aid, not a barrier to your living. Strong Connection: Sometimes you want to experience something new, but don’t have dare to try it. Sometimes you want to share a part of your lives with people, but don’t know where
There should be more job vacancies targeted at people with a disability
It’s not just the disability that can sometimes make the world seem like too big a challenge to handle, it’s the thoughts that come with living with one. Not only does extra energy now have to be put into something that may come naturally to someone else, but extra energy goes into encouraging yourself that this disability is somehow a gift. Sound familiar? Then there’s this added pressure to deal with other people’s thoughts and behaviour because you have a disability. Through no fault of theirs either, the world simply doesn’t always know the right things to say and do when we’re faced with something different. Having a disability means your needs, thoughts and the way you function take another route as compared to those around you. Don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t mean you don’t share crossroads with people around, it just means the way you thread upon them is different- and neither path is wrong. It’s hard enough to adapt day to day in a world that wasn’t really designed to include all disabilities. This is mainly because the world is still learning, as you are. More and more disabilities seem to be surfacing through time. Evidence of the first ramp ever discovered was back in 1913, but it took the world a heck of a time to realise it could be used to aid people in wheelchairs. It took lesser time for people to realise they could slide down a ramp- that’s just the way our brains work sometimes. Now when it comes to having a job- that’s a whole other ball game. Naturally, there are many things you might wish were different. Also knowing there exists a certain disability and having to interact with that someone are two completely different things – the latter comes with experience. How can we expect people to have this experience if parts of the world like schools and job industries have separated people with a disability and without teaching convenience and resource management? However, this little separation may be reflecting a growing gap in the community. Inclusion is Key Recently, there have been a lot of initiatives by the community to set up businesses that employ staff that have a disability. One such cafe is the All Things Equal, right here in Melbourne. There are also services that help people with a disability find employment. Kudos to the people who recognise the need to change the designs upon which our society functions and make new ones. However, the growing number of people with a disability is way higher than the little initiatives around the place and it can be quite hard and narrow to find employment if you’re one of them. You’re also destined to look for a job through a set channel- in a way told your options. But sometimes, it’s not about having a separate disability-friendly bus; it’s about having buses that cater for people with a disability too (as they rightly do in most of Australia). It shouldn’t be just a dream for this to exist in the job industry as well. Most of the organisations and event environments around have really tried to make their environments disability friendly- they’ve installed ramps, people make way for you and are always willing to help. However, this doesn’t mean that any of these are disability employment friendly. For many places set in their ways, it does become harder to reimagine the way it functions- especially if the business is doing well. However, is doing well good enough for the business industry to overlook a whole sector of the community? This doesn’t implicate starting to hire people with a disability into the systems, but to try and redesign specific roles within an organisation to include them. With any change, we got to start small. Start Small Making positions disability-friendly doesn’t mean opening a position where the job is competed for by people with and without a disability. It means allocating a position specifically for people with a disability in the organisation and side by side redesigning the position through the experience of the person with the organisation; and the organisation with the person. Here’s Why You are creating opportunities on different levels. for people with a disability, for the organisation to experience what it feels like to work together and for the world to experience this as well. With opportunity comes possibility. Possibility to reduce and eventually remove the barriers between people with and without a disability – in the world and in the minds of people. Creating employment. You are broadening the market and spaces available for people with a disability to work in. You never know how great your skill is at something till you discover it. Likewise, someone in a wheelchair might be great with numbers, better than anyone you’ve met but doesn’t know it yet because they haven’t been given the opportunity. You are creating this path for that someone. Creating equality. Don’t wait for the change to become a trend for acting upon it, be it. Inclusion also gives new insight and understanding into a world there isn’t enough research done yet. Here’s how: Designing a position available specifically for people with a disability. Providing training specifically for that role. Many organisations and venues provide training to people without experience. This should be an option for people with a disability as well. On the job training could also open possibility of feedback and insight that was otherwise overlooked. Be realistic with the position available. Studying the role and interviewing the person applying for the position well can help set the position’s requirements better without any over or under expectations. To Cosy Home and Community Care, your disability is one of the many parts of you. We believe in supporting all the other parts to shine, just as we want to support you with your disability.
Accepting Respite Care: Why taking a break can bring you and your carer closer
Why is something like Respite Care important anyway? No matter what journey we set ourselves onto, there are parts of it that you can neither do alone nor do you want to. It is nice to have the choice of independence, around people you love and want to support. However, not everyone has this choice. For people living with a disability, someone who’s been in an accident, a person recovering from surgery, or the elderly, for example; the need for help might be greater than before. As much as there are residencies available for these situations, not everyone is fond of the idea. The beauty of humanity does take flight in these situations, as people realise who are the ones willing to give anything to make your lives better. As much as the phrase goes, ‘ hold on to these people ’ – it is important to realise that these people aren’t going anywhere and so there isn’t the need to hold on to them so tightly, either. Being cared for by your loved ones and close friends changes the dynamics of a relationship. It exposes both sides to things neither have had reason to share with each other before. This can be confrontational and uncomfortable, but on the plus side, delightful and relieving to shed baggage and open up to each other like never before. But as life takes these new turns, it becomes ever more important to realise how having space can strengthen these connections. We’re talking breaks – for both you and your carer. We’ve all heard and experienced burnout. It’s like deciding to try to burn the candle at both ends, even if there isn’t any wax left. As human as we are, we all have limits to our patience, understanding, tolerance, temper and the list goes on and on! Having these limits isn’t the problem, but you do get to learn where these limits are in situations where the choice to take care or be taken care of, disappears. The last thing either side needs is the feeling of being stuck in circumstance. Circumstance can be unpredictable, but also always changed. Even professionally trained carers get tired. Except they have time to clock in and clock off. With family and friends, these lines are way more blurry than we know. That’s where we come in. Cosy Home & Community Care understands the importance of a break no matter who you are and offers Respite Care for these situations. We also understand how the bond between people trumps any situation and how important it is to keep that alive. However, we can only help when you understand it is perfectly alright to accept Respite Care and call us in. How do you know it’s time to seek Respite? Making the decision to seek Respite Care can happen for many reasons: whether personally motivated or circumstantial. Personal Reasons to want Respite: Sacrifice What began as a willing change of plans for each other, like cancelling a game to take care of someone or not watching your favourite show because a loved one is here to help you take a shower; has now turned into a sacrifice. If left unchecked, these feelings can turn to hostility. Frustration How easy is it to ignore what you’re feeling when there’s stuff to do and people to do it with? Your mind is as important as this stuff to be done- pay attention to it. Neglect Feeling a bit neglected is quite commonly felt by the person being looked after and the career. You may feel like your loved one is obligated and giving too much for your well-being. On the other case, as a carer, you might feel guilty wanting to do things alone and take a break because the person you’re looking after can’t do the same. You’re both entitled to a break- don’t forget that. Exhaustion Sometimes no matter what routine you have set, you function outside of it. Not getting sleep is a good example. Something as small as this can make the next day seem like a lot of extra effort. It’s easy to take it out on the people around us when we’re not in the greatest moods. Recognize these unpredictable situations and communicate them. Extreme cases can also cause either of you to fall ill frequently, which nobody wants to happen. Circumstantial Reasons to need Respite: Clashing Schedules When being taken care of by a loved one or a friend, there are two people’s schedules to work around. These often clash and can cause a lot of stress to just plan it out. An accident or recovery from surgery Such circumstances are uncalled for, but not unheard of. In these situations, the person going through recovery understands the process better than anyone on the outside. It is important to give the person time and understand what he/she needs. As tempting as it is, talking and sharing feelings may not be at the top of that person’s list at the moment. This is perfectly alright. Having a disability Some disabilities require physical assistance to get around. Others call for constant company through daily function, while some may not need assistance at all. Even if it is something small, like you’re a really bad cook, respite can help you learn to like this skill with the right person. Elderly care Growing old is an inevitable process that is not so comfortably talked about, even though it happens to everyone. Sometimes it takes a lot of courage to step out and accept that you’re not as equipped as you used to be to do certain things- either physically or mentally. Travelling Whether you’re a loved one travelling for work, or to take a break; a person being cared for who’s decided to take a holiday, or a live-in carer needing that holiday – Respite is exactly what you need. Your funded Respite isn’t enough Sometimes even the allocated Respite care isn’t enough for your days. You