Caregiving can be an incredibly isolating role. You’re putting a large amount of emotional energy into another person, often leaving very little for your own needs.
Self-care can be a valuable way to help in this area, but it isn’t always enough. Besides, self-care doesn’t address many of the challenges that caregivers face, like how to respond to challenging situations.
One potential aid is a site called AgingCare. This is a free support site that offers a variety of information about caregiving, along with the chance to interact with other caregivers.
In this AgingCare review, we’re taking a look at the site and how it can possibly help you.
Caregiver Forum
For me, the most exciting aspect of AgingCare is the forum. This is one of the best places I’ve seen to get genuine feedback about caregiving, from people who know what it feels like.
The questions range from simple to complex, based on what people need at the time. The question below is one of them – and you can leave your own questions on the site.
More importantly, other people do answer questions on the site. The image below shows part of one answer from the question about bathing.
Some of the answers will be obvious, of course, but others may provide new information or angles to consider. I can imagine how helpful the approach would have been when I was a caregiver.
After all, non-caregivers often don’t have a sense of how complicated caregiving can be. Being able to ask someone in the same situation is an invaluable tool.
Information and Articles
Discussions are fantastic, but sometimes you need more detailed information on a topic. AgingCare has this too, in the form of articles. These seem to be written by members of the site, like the example below.
I would personally prefer articles written by experts, but those are easy to find online. Besides, there are some advantages to articles from caregivers. These can give you significant insight into how other people think and may provide you with some new angles.
Finding What You Need
Another cool aspect is the ease of finding information. The AgingCare site has a large list of caregiving topics, like the ones in the image below.
Most of the topics have links going to articles, questions and discussions, giving you plenty of places to find information.
Other Features
The site does also offer a couple of guides, one for hospice care and one for funeral planning.
There are links out to products and services too, like a medical alert system and various senior care products. Some of them can be purchased through the site. The products are well-presented and they would be useful for caregiving.
I imagine some people may find the style distasteful, but it’s a reasonable approach. The site does need to make money in some way to provide the support that they do. AgingCare does so well and avoids spamming visitors.
There are two other areas.
One is a jobs board, allowing you to look for work as a caregiver (we’ve talked about this topic in our guide to becoming a paid caregiver).
The other helps you to find long-term care options in your area. This includes senior housing and also in-home care. Learning about the services in your area is a good first step to finding solutions for your needs.
My AgingCare Review
I do like the AgingCare site, especially as most of the services are free. It is a fantastic hub for information and the members appear to be active and engaged.
The site doesn’t take the place of interacting with others in person, but it could still be a way to make caregiving a less isolating process.
At the end of the day, AgingCare isn’t going to be a source of medical and expert advice – nor is it designed to be. Instead, it is a powerful chance to get advice and guidance from people who are going through similar experiences themselves.
After all, they’ve been there. They’ve learned to find creative solutions to the darndest problems and ways to cope with the unexpected.
Looking For Answers?
There’s only so much we can cover in a single blog post (or even a series!). Sometimes you need to do a deep delve, which is where the right book can be powerful.
Click the button to check out our favorite books for caregivers and why these stand out.
Caregiving is not an easy and simple job. While the main responsibility of caregivers is to provide care to people, particularly to those who are sick and of old ages, caregivers also need to take care of themselves and to spend some time doing things outside of their duty. More often than not, caregivers need to juggle lots of different things at once (e.g. running errands, doing housework, and more) in order to fulfill their obligation. This often leaves them tired and drained, which if constantly disregarded, can lead to caregiver burnout.