The Importance of Caregiving

     Is there any good news about caregiving? Yes. Many family caregivers say it is the toughest job they ever had, and yet the most rewarding. Dedicating yourself to an elderly relative, spouse or partner, or loved one certainly affirms your loving nature. Any illnesses or injury may limit a patient's mobility and dictate the degree of dependence upon others for recovery. The patient would rather depend upon the members of his or her family than on strangers in the hospital. 

     Home nursing encourages the patient's self confidence, competence and independence. This allows him or her to make his or her own decision, no matter how simple or minor. Likewise, it allows the patient to make decisions that control his or her life. It also lift's the patient's moral and mental outlook to speed up full  recovery. 

     Caregiving often helps reorient a family (family level) or neighborhood (community level) around matters of enduring value such as faith, prayer and love rather than on material issue that often dominate home life. Once the dependent person dies, people who helped care for him or her, generally, are generally more confident that they have "done well". They have "been there", they know what the person went through, and they, the caregivers, were loyal, trustworthy, and kind.