The "Are You a Caregiver?" Quiz
Thinking back over the last year, ask yourself the following questions:
Have I . . .
• Taken my loved one to a healthcare professional or spoken with any healthcare professionals about my loved one's health?
• Helped my loved one dress, bathe, prepare or eat a meal?
• Administered to my loved one's medical needs?
• Assisted my loved one with shopping, paying bills or doing chores around the house?
• Arranged for outside services for my loved one, such as nurse's aides, transportation, housekeeping, medical care or other personal services?
• Dealt with special-needs tutors, physical/occupational therapists, daycare, medical specialists or hospitalizations for my chronically ill child?
• Handled issues relating to Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, health insurance or other aspects of my loved one's finances?
• Been involved in decisions regarding my loved one’s housing options or housing needs?
Want to know what your answers mean? Read on . . .
Discovering You Are a Caregiver
Recognizing your role in helping a loved one with life’s challenges is paramount to your well-being. Here’s why—and how to help yourself!
If you answered yes to any of the questions above, you are a caregiver.
So why do some people who provide hours of care—whether it’s for a child with special needs, an elderly parent, an ailing spouse or another loved one with a disability—see themselves as caregivers while others providing just as much care do not see themselves as such? Michelle Stone, senior program manager of dependent care at Fannie Mae, the major financial-services company serving the American home-mortgage industry, believes there are several reasons.
Stone, whose program at Fannie Mae has provided an on-site eldercare consultant to make phone calls to hospitals, discharge planners, Medicare/Medicaid offices and more for over 1,200 employees since 1999, says many people don’t consider themselves caregivers because they don’t live with the loved one. And, she adds, if both of the caregiver’s parents are alive, the caregiver does not see herself as such because she views the care recipient’s spouse as the caregiver.
