How to provide family caregiver support

Caring for people living with dementia is a demanding job that requires flexibility and patience. Family carers take on a big responsibility and the challenges can at times feel overwhelming. Having a strong network of support can go a long way to help with caring for someone.

If a friend or relative is a family caregiver, there are a number of ways you can do your bit to aid their welfare. From offering a sympathetic ear to organising respite, dementia carer support can come in many different forms.

What is a family caregiver?

Family caregivers are informal carers who have a personal relationship with a person living with dementia. They could be a relative, partner, friend or neighbour and play a crucial role in ensuring the individual can live a comfortable life in their own home.

While family carers have no formal training, many demands are put on their time and energy, which can lead to burnout. Carer support is available but it often requires someone close to the caregiver to ensure they’re looking after themselves.

Tips for dementia carer support

Assisting with coping strategies for dementia carers can ensure the situation remains sustainable for everyone involved. Here are some of the ways you can reduce stress for caregivers and make sure nobody is left struggling on their own.

Plan ahead when visiting

Regularly visiting people living with dementia can give them a huge boost and take some pressure off the family carer too. In order for your visits to have maximum benefit, it’s important to let the caregiver know your plans in advance.

Whether this means establishing a schedule or simply sending a text, proper warning will help the carer to ensure the visit runs as smoothly as possible. Many people living with dementia need reassurance, so stopping by unannounced can cause upset.

Due to the nature of dementia, it’s worth remembering that there may be times when a scheduled visit isn’t appropriate. Respect the judgement of the person caring for someone with dementia and be flexible if the individual is having a bad day.

Research the condition

Understanding more about dementia is an effective way to offer carer support. Do some of your own research online, with the Alzheimer’s Society and the NHS good places to start. Once you have this overall understanding, you can use it as a basis to ask the family carer about the person living with dementia and the specific challenges they face.

Listen to the carer’s problems

Caring for people living with dementia can be frustrating and sometimes having someone to talk to can be enough to help a caregiver cope. Wider carer support may be required, but the best place to start is always with listening to their problems and trying to understand the situation.

Organise some time out

So much of caring with a person living with dementia is centred around daily, repetitive tasks, which can leave little headspace for a family carer to organise different activities. That means you’re uniquely placed to plan something special yet appropriate to give both the individual and the caregiver a change of scenery.

Offer to help out with their duties

While the temptation to take over caregiving responsibilities in order to offer some respite can be strong, it’s important to go about this in the right way. Many people living with dementia rely on the familiarity of routine and disrupting this can be detrimental to everyone.

Offer to help in areas where it won’t upset the individual, such as cooking or cleaning, and always do so in conjunction with the carer. They will understand better than anyone what you can do to help, so don’t assume you have all the answers.

Keep in contact and look for signs of burnout

Help for dementia carers can be as simple as maintaining regular contact and keeping an eye out for the support that’s needed. Caregivers can be particularly susceptible to burnout, but often don’t see the signs as they’re too close to the situation.

If you think a friend or relative is displaying signs of burnout, approach the topic carefully and discuss ways to help alleviate some of the stress. They’re likely to be reluctant to accept help, but small changes could make all the difference to a carer’s own personal wellbeing.

Give them resources for carer support

There’s a lot of dementia carer support available, but sometimes it feels like just another time-consuming task to try and find it. Doing the research and presenting the resources to a carer can be particularly helpful.

If you’re wondering what support is available for dementia carers, the Alzheimer’s Society has produced a comprehensive guide. Here at Barchester, we also have a dementia carers support guide and advice on dementia care.

Take a gift and show your support

A small gift can be enough to remind family caregivers that they are not alone. It could be something to encourage the carer to take a moment for themselves or related to their life outside of caregiving.

As dementia progresses, many people living with the condition can no longer show their gratitude to family and friends. Providing this validation as the carer’s support network can ensure they feel appreciated even if their relative can’t demonstrate it.