Building Strong


    Relationships

  • Especially for caregivers, open, honest communication is the key to healthy relationships.
  • Caregiving presents changes in your roles and identity. Acknowledge and discuss how the changes affect your relationships.
  • Setting limits or saying “no” doesn’t prevent you from providing loving, effective care. In fact, it enables you to do just that.

Caregiving can place added importance on the support of your spouse, friends, family members, and the care recipient. Unfortunately, it can also put a strain on those relationships. Maintaining healthy, mutually beneficial relationships requires deliberate effort. Open, thoughtful communication is essential.

Next Step

Don’t try to handle caregiving alone. Start by asking for help with simple tasks.

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It’s also important to acknowledge the changes that caregiving brings.

Many caregivers discover wonderful new sides to their relationships once they embrace “caregiver” as one of their important roles, alongside parent, wife, employee, sister, husband, brother, and so on.

Because being a family caregiver is only one of your roles, it’s important to set limits on the work you do. That means you don’t always have to say yes to requests or demands, whether they come from medical personnel, family members, friends, or your loved one. The ability to say “no” is one of the most important caregiving skills -- and one of the most counterintuitive.

Many caregivers fear that if they don’t agree to all demands, they’re somehow failing their loved one. Selectively turning down requests is an investment in your long-term ability to say “yes.” It’s again a matter of choice. Just as you choose to provide care, you choose when to protect your time by setting boundaries.

Content shown was developed in collaboration between AGIS and National Family Caregivers Association.

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NFCA

Support fellow caregivers nationwide by donating to NFCA assisting them with reaching out to educate, support and speak up for family caregivers.

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Community Forums

Visit the forums to learn from other family caregivers like you, and share your experiences with others.

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Forum

Dealing with family members
Discuss how family dynamics have changed with other caregivers

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Family CareGroups

Learn more and purchase this book by Suzanne Mintz, President and Cofounder of the National Family Caregivers Association.

It’s filled with important and useful suggestions for family caregivers from a family caregiver herself.

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Family CareGroups

Caregiving gets easier when family and friends pitch in. Family CareGroups give you simple tools to organize tasks and keep everyone coordinated.

Start your group