Taking Care of Caregivers
Reported May 22, 2008
TAMPA, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) — Clinical trials are generally for a patient, not the people taking care of the patient; but a new study focuses on the caregiver and how support can help everyone involved.
Louise Jolliff is the ultimate caregiver. For 40 years, she has taken care of her son, Jerry, who has cerebral palsy and for the last five years, she has been caring for her husband, Wade, who has prostate cancer. “Without her, I think I would probably not make it, but with her, I can do anything,” Wade says. “Care giving is very hard because everybody says, ‘You’ve gotta take care of yourself,'” Louise told Ivanhoe. “That sounds very good, but it’s very difficult to do.”
More than 50 million people in the United States are caregivers. Their help saves the health care system more than $300 billion a year. That’s why a new clinical trial focuses on educating the caregiver. Study project manager Darlene Johnson is passionate about this research because she is a tongue cancer survivor. Her husband was her caregiver. “I went home and told him about the study, and he said, ‘Ah, man. I wish I had something like that when you were going through this,’ because he felt very insecure himself,” Johnson of the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla., told Ivanhoe.
For the study, caregivers will have one-on-one time with a nurse and receive a home care guide book. Some of the advice: 1) take time to rest — devote at least 30 minutes a day to yourself; 2) Be open in your conversations with the patient — talk about life and death; 3) Watch for signs of depression and 4) Let the sick person make as many decisions as possible.
“I think this training will be invaluable,” Johnson says. “Whatever you don’t understand, you can ask a lot of questions,” Louise adds. Louise also says she does one thing to help her get through each day: “I do a lot of praying, and that gives me strength.”
The study at Moffitt Cancer Center is open to patients and their caregivers for the next year. To qualify for the trial, patients must be older than 70 years of age and have a diagnosis of colon cancer or non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute
Tampa, FL
(813) 745-3822
http://www.moffitt.org