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ALZHEIMER CAREGIVERS

“I doubt whether there is a single day where I don’t cry,” says Larry Eber.
He never thought he would become caretaker of his life partner. His wife Joanne has Alzheimer’s disease. The responsibility has taken its toll on Larry.

Alzheimer’s takes its toll not only on the person suffering from it but also on the caregiver.

“I doubt whether there is a single day where I don’t cry,” says Larry Eber. He never thought he would become caretaker of his life partner. His wife Joanne has Alzheimer’s disease. The responsibility has taken its toll on Larry.

“It does have an emotional effect on me. Originally I went to the doctor and said gee this is really emotional. I’ve never really taken any pills outside of vitamin pills. He gave me a prescription. I took one or two pills and said this is not for me and I have never taken anything since,” says Larry.

According to Dr. Mary Mittelman, “Alzheimer’s disease is perhaps uniquely stressful because the person you are caring for is slowly changing. You can’t exactly predict how she or he is going to behave tomorrow based on the way she or he behaved today.”

Larry Eber was one of 400 participants, in New York and elsewhere, in a 10-year study just reported in the American Journal of Psychiatry, tracking care-givers and depression. Compared to caretakers who got traditional support, those who received additional counseling in the form of individual treatment, family therapy and support groups had a 50 percent lower risk of having significant depression one year later.
“Knowing that in a crisis when things change, when a new symptom came up you wouldn’t know how to handle that, you could call a counselor and get advice or support or just a listening ear was very important both to the caregivers and their family members,” reports Dr. Mittelman.

The study found that this impact lasted more than 3 years after the caregiver participated in the individual and family counseling and persisted even after the caregiver placed his or her husband or wife in a nursing home or after the person died.

Fortunately, Larry is healthy. And he has a healthy perspective in these difficult times.
“It’s been a very good life with her because she took very good care of me.”

For more information on Alzheimer's, click here
http://www.alz.org/
http://www.healthnewsconnect.com/page0024.html

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