{"id":36,"date":"2023-03-31T13:11:30","date_gmt":"2023-03-31T13:11:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hilizzy.com\/guide\/?p=36"},"modified":"2025-02-12T17:17:14","modified_gmt":"2025-02-12T17:17:14","slug":"it-takes-a-village","status":"publish","type":"courses","link":"https:\/\/lizzycare.com\/resources\/course\/it-takes-a-village\/","title":{"rendered":"It Takes A Village: Fostering Collaboration Among Family Caregivers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lizzy Care is reimagining dementia care and providing the resources for today\u2019s needs and tomorrow\u2019s challenges.<\/em><\/em><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Get Started<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Caregivers need to work together to help support one another and the person they love but working together takes effort. What helps make a good team tick.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Caregiving shouldn\u2019t be done alone! It\u2019s very common that when someone we love, like a parent, starts to decline one person steps up to the challenge and becomes the primary caregiver, maybe that\u2019s you but remember caregiving is best done as a team sport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Taking care of someone with a memory care condition can be incredibly draining and as a caregiver you\u2019ll need help and respite along the way. If you\u2019re not the primary caregiver your role is also incredibly important, the more the caregiving is shared the better for your loved ones. Stick together to help shoulder the burden. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We designed Lizzy<\/strong><\/em> to help caregiving teams work together better. By adding other potential caregivers such as family members, friends and even the professionals (like home health aides) to your Lizzy<\/strong><\/em> care circle you can use the shared tasks and Care Feed to keep everyone up-to-date on what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s some advice on how to make sure you\u2019re working together successfully.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Support each other<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Being supportive of each other will make the job of caregiving easier for everyone<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The key to a successful caregiving circle is to take care of each other as well as the person you\u2019re caring for. Be mindful of everyone\u2019s needs and emotions. This is a difficult time and everyone needs to pull together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each person on the caregiving team will have different strengths. Some people might be handy around the home, some people might be good at cooking and preparing meals and others might be more equipped to handle the legal and financial paperwork. As a care circle, take time to understand each other\u2019s strengths and play to them. Each person might have different levels of availability of other people to take care of so make sure the expectations are realistic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes family members who are caring for the same person can have pre-existing and unresolved issues. Taking on the pressure of looking after a loved one with dementia can amplify these issues and make a situation worse. Make sure that you try and talk these issues through. If you get into a situation where there\u2019s a disagreement then sometimes it can be best to try and let the problem go. Getting angry will only make you more stressed and that isn\u2019t helping the person you both care about.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

No one is a mind reader<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Keep lines of communication open so everyone can work together<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One of the main reasons family and friends don\u2019t help more with caregiving is that they simply don\u2019t know what needs to be done. Making sure that everyone is on the same page and has all the facts can help everyone understand how serious the situation is and what help is really needed. We felt that too and that\u2019s why we built Lizzy<\/strong><\/em> <\/strong>\u2013 to help caregiving teams communicate with each other more effectively and keep an open list of all the things that need to get done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re at the beginning of this journey then it is a  good idea to set up a family\/team meeting so that you can let everyone know what\u2019s going on. Continuing to have regular check ins with the care circle is also a great way to make sure everyone is aware of everything that\u2019s going on, finding out how everyone is doing and sorting out upcoming responsibilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make sure your loved one who is receiving care is involved in the conversation, talk to them about what they envision for life as they get older and as their memory care condition worsens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make sure if you\u2019re caring for your loved one and you spot a new behavior or symptom you share the information with the care circle. If you\u2019re responsible for taking your loved one to an appointment make sure to share any comments from the doctor or new test results. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Don\u2019t only share the bad news, make sure to share the moments of celebration and inspiration too. Voice your appreciation of what others in the care circle are doing and keep everyone feeling positive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Managing long distance relationships<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Caregivers who live further away can still be involved<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s natural that those living the closest to the person with dementia will take on more responsibility for caregiving. But if you live far away that doesn’t mean that you can\u2019t help. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you live further away then you can help the caregiving team with research and paperwork, you can make regular phone calls to your loved one (and the other caregivers) to see how they\u2019re doing. Social connection makes a big difference for people with memory care conditions and so keeping them engaged with a regular phone call can really help. You can also offer to come and stay close by for short periods to help give the nearby caregivers a break, believe us, they\u2019ll be very grateful! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember that if you\u2019re a caregiver living further away, try to avoid telling the nearby caregivers what to do. If you are further away you might not have a full understanding of the situation on the ground or the pressures on the nearby caregivers so it\u2019s best to let them stay in charge so as not to lead to disagreements and rising levels of frustration with each other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take care of yourself<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Don’t neglect your own needs while caregiving<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Caregiving is hard and stressful. It\u2019s OK to acknowledge when you\u2019re feeling under pressure. Talk to the care circle when you need help. Learn to recognize some of the signs of stress in yourself and others. For more thoughts on how to manage stress take a look at our course on \u2018Managing caregiving stress\u2019.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Caregivers need to work together to help support one another and the person they love but working together takes effort. What helps make a good team tick. Caregiving shouldn\u2019t be done alone! It\u2019s very common that when someone we love, like a parent, starts to decline one person steps up to the challenge and becomes […]<\/p>\n

Read More… from It Takes A Village: Fostering Collaboration Among Family Caregivers<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":858,"parent":0,"menu_order":300,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"content-type":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,168,7,198,9,194,19],"tags":[69,66,65,92,102,58,80,74,106,108,104,82,107,103],"topics":[154,169,191,153,192],"class_list":["post-36","courses","type-courses","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alzheimers","category-caregiving","category-communication","category-community","category-denial","category-family","category-support","tag-care","tag-caregiver","tag-caregiving","tag-communication","tag-community","tag-dementia","tag-family","tag-memory-care","tag-network","tag-overwhelming","tag-social","tag-stress","tag-stress-management","tag-support","topics-alzheimers","topics-caregiving","topics-communication","topics-dementia","topics-support"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lizzycare.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/courses\/36","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lizzycare.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/courses"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lizzycare.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/courses"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lizzycare.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lizzycare.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lizzycare.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/courses\/36\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":860,"href":"https:\/\/lizzycare.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/courses\/36\/revisions\/860"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lizzycare.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lizzycare.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lizzycare.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lizzycare.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36"},{"taxonomy":"topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lizzycare.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics?post=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}