The Need for Caring for Care Givers - LPNI

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The Need for Caring for Care Givers

Health Topic - May 2022

In Exodus 20:12 (NIV) we read, Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

Although I previously wrote something about Alzheimer’s Disease as my personal journey, I will write again about this disease from the care givers point view. Recently we conducted an extraordinary training at Dar Alkalima University about Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease. We were able to convince an expert team of four in this field from North Carolina USA, to come to Bethlehem to offer a training program in two parts. The first part was directed toward the medical staff and professionals, while the second one addressed care givers at nursing homes and family members.

Both were wonderful presentations with great evaluations from attendees. Additionally, we have been sincerely touched by the number of emotions the second group of care givers showed and expressed. They were able to express their disappointments, frustrations, loneliness, helplessness, and mostly their pain and sorrows to see their loved ones struggle with dementia issues day in and day out with no clear guidelines that they can follow to help them walk the journey together with minimal danger and risks.

I personally was extremely touched with the expression of feelings, and understood their fears as I also experience the same challenges with my mother who has been struggling with Alzheimer’s issues for five years. All the care givers seem to be struggling with the same fears, same concerns, same emotions, and the same sense of helplessness.

In Palestine, dementia diseases still carry a stigma in our society, so it is very rare to hear someone admitting that one of their family members has any kind of dementia or any kind of memory impairment or thought impairment. People usually tend to hide the patient and isolate him or her in one room of the house, and not even allow for any kind of social interaction between this patient and visitors or the surrounding community. As a result, this adds additional challenges to care givers, who are mainly family members, most likely the wife or daughters of the patient. This was clearly obvious when all those who registered for the program were women!

My mom was the first person with Alzheimer’s who was accepted into the nursing home as a resident. There were a few who had shown signs and symptoms of some kind of memory or thought decline, but neither the family nor the administration clearly stated the situation.

The most important impact of the training was not only the valuable and useful information, and the clear instructions provided by the trainers, but we also clearly realized the importance of taking care of the care givers. They are the most vulnerable group of helpers for individuals with the various mental illnesses. Over time, care givers may become ill from lack of any kind of psychological and moral support for their efforts. It is very important that as parish nurses we also need to take care of ourselves so we can adequately care for several generations of others.

Raeda Mansour, Parish Nurse at Christmas Lutheran Church Bethlehem

Intergenerational Program Manager, Dar Alkalima University