Getting Help When You Need It Most

Getting the right kind of help, when we need it, can be a real challenge.

First, recognizing when you need help, particularly when you’re in a familiar situation, isn’t that easy to do. Caregivers are often highly functioning multi-taskers who don’t even know they’re exhausted. Sometimes the care they’re providing has escalated so slowly and steadily, a caregiver might not even notice the greater demands on their time and energy.

Other times, the demands on a caregiver change so suddenly, the caregiver has little time to even consider the impact on their own physical, emotional, psychological, and sociological well-being.

Particularly with the holiday season fast approaching, time is rare when it comes to exercise, rest, or even just to spend with friends and have fun -- a requirement for caregivers if they want to take care of themselves as well.

Looking back, caregivers will often say they only have very blurry memories of holidays, if at all. Only much later do they realize how "taking it all on" and not getting help, robs everyone around them almost as much as it robs themselves.

Taking the time to gain the perspective you need so that you can identify when you need help is important. Determining the kind of help you need is essential.

Think of what might happen if you don’t get help. If you don’t get help before you wind up hurt or exhausted, or worse, who will be there to take care of your loved one at all? If you wind up hurt, you need twice the help you needed before.

Asking for help, whether discussing it with your own healthcare provider, your family, or exploring a service like the VNA, can help you determine your needs, enjoy your life and family so much more, and most importantly, prevent a crisis. Finding out more about new technologies that can provide you with some relief and peace of mind when you can't be there for someone you care about can also help.

This holiday season, make a decision to get the help you need. Call the VNA.