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Family caregiving is physically, emotionally and financially draining. Despite all of this, family members persevere and wake up early to do their caregiving duties.
Why?
Simply because they care and they find it rewarding to take care of their loved ones.
However, the financial and emotional strain of family caregiving is undeniable as shown in the images below, which puts them at risk of facing financial woes and experiencing emotional stress.
To cope with the emotional and financial toll of being a family caregiver, we are featuring five articles that can help you manage caregiving stress and thwart financial stress as a result of providing care to your loved ones.
Family Caregiving Tips to Avert Emotional and Financial Stress
How To Curb the High Cost of Caregiving
Barron’s article highlights the benefits of having long term care insurance to curb the expensive cost of caregiving effectively. It helps pay for different types of long term care facilities like nursing homes, assisted living facilities, CCRCs, adult day care and the likes.
However, policies don’t kick in until someone needs hands-on assistance for at least two ADLs such as eating, bathing, and dressing, which means that policyholders should also be ready to pay out-of-the-pocket before enjoying the benefits.
To make the most of your long term care insurance policy, Barron suggests tapping it strategically since the average benefit amount of long term care insurance is around $250 to $300 per day. Instead of hiring a caregiver, adults who are still mobile can opt for adult day care, which is about $70 per day, cheaper than having a home health aide.
Download our free e-book Long Term Care Insurance and Retirement: 8 Essential Questions to learn more about how the policy works.
Managing Caregiver Stress
Mike Good featured Vicki Kaufman of CaregiverFamillies.com in his Dementia Care Workshop, A Trove of Tips for Managing Caregiving Tips. Vicki discussed the following topics:
- What is good and bad stress
- Some effects of chronic long-term stress
- Benefits of progressive relaxation
- About the “Whine Cellar” healthy coping technique
- How to let go of guilt and worry less
- The importance of plugging into social networks and support systems
Balancing daily stress is important to your physical and mental health as a family caregiver. Managing your stress is not just beneficial to you, but it also has a significant impact on people around you.
You can watch Vicki in her Dementia Workshop here:
Build Up Your Self-esteem
Diane is kind enough to share her experiences during the first month of taking care of her elderly parents here. She shared 20 things she learned providing care for her parents and her tips about building self-esteem.
According to Diane, being a family caregiver can be a blow to your confidence because of these scenarios:
- When one or both parents are less than complimentary about your best efforts
- On the nights when you get home at 10 p.m. after working all day and visiting them – and have to hurry to eat and go to bed, so you can do it again the next day
- When you want to cry, and you tell yourself, “I don’t know if I can do this!”
You can counteract this negativity by buying a self-esteem notebook like she did or you can also try other things that can lift your spirits such as yoga, prayer, and meditation.
Self Care Tips for Family Caregivers
It’s an important responsibility to be a family caregiver, and it’s fulfilling too. However, the stress of family caregiving can have a negative impact on your physical and emotional wellbeing.
Family caregivers tend to set aside their wellbeing to carry out their caregiving duties. But how can you attend to your responsibilities if you are unwell? You need to take care of yourself first to become an efficient family caregiver.
Here are self-care tips shared by CareGiving.com
- Get physically active
- Accept help from others
- Fuel your body with healthy food
- Try relaxation techniques
- Connect with caregiver resources
Tax Breaks for Caregivers
Family caregiving is expensive, so it’s wise to explore all available options to make it more affordable like taking advantage of tax breaks. TheCaregiverSpace.org shares a tax guide for family caregivers.
But before you can take advantage of medical and dental deductions, you need to prove first that you’re providing at least half of financial support to your loved ones and they have lived with you for one year.
These are some of the medical and dental expenses you can deduct on your taxes
- Payments and co-payments to doctors, dentists, surgeons, chiropractors, psychiatrists, psychologists, and nontraditional medical practitioners
- Payments for in-hospital or residential care, including the cost of meals and lodging
- Rehabilitation, therapeutic, preventative, and personal care services for people who are chronically ill who need support for ADLs
- The cost of eyeglasses, contact lenses, hearing aids, false teeth, crutches, wheelchairs, and guide dogs
- The cost of prescription drugs and insulin
- Payments made for insurance premiums for policies covering medical and long-term care.
These are the expenses you can’t deduct on your taxes
- Anything your employer or insurance reimbursed you for
- Funeral expenses
- Over-the-counter medicines
- Health club fees
- Vitamins
- Diet food
- Toiletries and cosmetics
- Costs of medical tourism (but the procedure itself is allowed)
- Most cosmetic surgery
- Non-prescription nicotine gum or patches