Milk, Mail, and Medications – Raising Awareness around Care Tasks and the Impacts of Caregiving
Written by: Ashley Berghoff and Kristin Litzelman
Many people who perform care tasks do not self-identify as caregivers. Often, those caring for others view their care as a part of being a spouse, child, sibling, or friend, rather than viewing themselves as caregivers. The presentation, Milk, Mail, and Medications: Helping Caregivers Self-Identify aims to help people identify what care roles or tasks look or feel like, think critically about all aspects of care roles, and reflect on things that might impact people in a care role.
Care tasks often look like things that we do to help friends or family. Caring for others may involve:
- Sitting in on health appointments
- Helping with housework or chores
- Picking up groceries or bringing a meal
- Driving a loved one for their errands
- Helping with personal care tasks such as showering or eating
- Managing finances for a loved one
- Encouraging a loved one to take care of themselves
- Providing emotional support
If someone is in a care role or performing care tasks (such as the ones listed above), they can benefit from calling themselves a caregiver. By introducing themselves as a caregiver, they can increase engagement with their care recipient’s medical team, advocate with health insurance, and connect to work accommodations and support. In addition, it can be useful for their healthcare provider to know that they are a caregiver to help monitor and manage stress.
Caregivers experience many feelings about their care tasks and caregiving role. Data from AARP’s Caregiving in the U.S. Report (2020) identified that although 37% of caregivers experienced high emotional stress, 36% of caregivers reported little to no emotional stress. In addition, although 18% of caregivers experienced high physical strain, 54% of caregivers experienced low physical strain. These data points illustrate the wide range of experiences people can have in their caregiving role. Data from the same study identified that 51% of caregivers agreed that they were given a sense of purpose from caregiving, while 18% disagreed. Positive and negative feelings about caregiving can co-exist and can change and evolve over time.
Feelings about caregiving and caregiving stress depends on the individual. Caregiving happens in context, which includes things such as the caregiver’s life stage, relationships, environment, finances, culture and values, skills and strengths, training, and other roles they currently have. Other factors such as caregiving duration, how much control the caregiver has over the situation, previous caregiving experience, and social support also play a role in caregiver stress.
To lower potential stress, it can be beneficial to prepare for care roles. This may include reflecting on how caregiving would fit in context and building skills and practices, such as self-compassion, communications skills, or mindfulness.
For those currently in care roles, it can be helpful to assess needs and preferences, reach out for support based on personal needs, and practice self-compassion. Assessing needs might look like using resources such as the American Medical Association’s Caregiver Self-Assessment Questionnaire: https://www.healthinaging.org/tools-and-tips/caregiver-self-assessment-questionnaire, the Agefully app: https://agefully.me/#/, or the Caregiver Action Network’s Caregiver Helpdesk: https://www.caregiveraction.org/helpdesk.
For those interested in learning more about this topic, watch the full Milk, Mail, and Medications presentation here (passcode ncran!2024). This webinar was presented by Dr. Kristin Litzelman, an Associate Professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension State Specialist in Family and Financial Well-Being in Middle and Later Life.
