Try: As a caregiver (cg) you may be challenged to strike a balance between taking care of the Care recipient (cr) and taking care of yourself you may continuously juggle multiple conflicting priorities if you don’t take care of yourself your effectivieness as a cg may be diminished however if you focus primarily on meeting your own needs the well being of the cr may be adversely impacted the assessment tool below can be used to measure your level of care for both the cr and yourself after this is completed you may be able to use what you learned to make some adjustments in your overall approach to care giving keep things in perspective and more balanced scale of caregiving low 1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9–10 high the scale is a 1-10 continuum which describes the various styles of caring circle the number or numbers which best describe your level of care abandonment to withdraw protection or support or to actively abuse the cr low 1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9–10 high neglect to allow life-threatening situations to persist or to display consistent coldness or anger low 1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9–10 high detachment aloofness to maintain an air of detachment or being aloof perfunctory in your care no genuine concern only obligation concerned only with physical well-being of the cr low 1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9–10 high general support given freely with a guarded degree of warmth and respect occasional feelings of manipulation concerned with both emotional and physical well-being of the cr low 1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9–10 high expressed empathy the ability to feel what the cr feels a quality relationship where feelings can be freely expressed and caringly received with non-judgmental positive regard low 1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9–10 high sympathy feeling sorry for the cg giving sympathy focusing on the losses experienced by cr low 1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9–10 high occasional over-involvement care characterized by periodic attempts to "do for" rather than "be with " low 1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9–10 high consistent over-involvement cr regarded as object of series of tasks which must be performed low 1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9–10 high heroic over-involvement care characterized by sometimes frantic and desperate attempts to provide for every possible need the cr has; increased dependence cr not allowed independence low 1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9–10 high fusion of personalities between cg and cr the cg cg’s needs no longer have any value or meaning; the gg has abandoned his or herself to needs of the cr low 1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9–10 high scoring you can place yourself on the scale of caregiving to determine how you value the cr compared to yourself the low numbers give little or no value honor to the needs of the cr the high numbers 8 9 10 give little or no value to your own needs as an individual and as a cfg the numbers in the middle are where you find a balance between undercare and overcare neither of the two extremes is healthy; they represent positions where you are not helping the cr information references adapted from www acsu buffalo edu – article in co-op networker; caregiver of older persons by judy bradley caregiver’s handbook" by the caregiver education and support services seniors counseling and training case management services of the san diego county mental health services no date
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Categories: Caregiver Needs&Support, Emotional Psychological, Financial, Legal, Medical Physical, Personal
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Keywords: Care giving caregiver rating scale self help
*This information is listed as a Fact Sheet and is not explicitly medically licensed