Letting Go of My Father is an article about author’s, Johnathan Rauch, father who suffers with Parkinson’s disease (2010). Rauch struggles with coming to the realization that his father is declining in heath and coming near one of life’s certainties. His father insisted that he could handle living on his own and taking care of himself, but proved within three days that he was nowhere near able to take care of himself. Rauch had to put his entire life on hold in order to take care of his father, in over his head taking care of his parent and ignoring his mental, emotional, and physical health. In order to cope with his personal life, Rauch began to talk to almost everyone and anyone that would listen about his father’s condition. What he learned was that he was not the only one suffering with the responsibility of taking care of a parent, many middle-aged people were struggling to cope with the decline of a parent. Cultural change is necessary in this country, Rauch is quoted, “but the cultural infrastructure is all but nonexistent.” So many people are completely unprepared for one of life’s certainties, but too stubborn to ask for help which is why a cultural change is a necessity in addressing the …show more content…
According to Dr. Richard Schultz and Dr. Paula Sherwood, family caregiving has an adverse and even positive outcome in a chronic stress experience (Schultz and Sherwood 2009). Caregiving has the same features as a chronical stress experience creating physical and mental strain throughout the process. It is accompanied by the feelings of helplessness, uncertainty, and uncontrollability. Family caregivers are the main source of support and home care, taking part in services that would cost them from a professional. Professionals, such as nurses and social workers, are now giving advice and support to family caregivers teaching them ways to provide the care that is
Roth, D. L., Perkins, M., Wadley, V. G., Temple, E. M., & Haley, W. E. (2009). Family Caregiving and Emotional Strain: Associations with Quality of Life in a Large National Sample of Middle-Aged and Older Adults. Quality of Life Research , 18, 679-688.
(Davidson, F. G.) Due to the nature of dementia being a neuropsychological disorder, those affected by the disease tend to look like they will not require much care, which, in reality, they often require more care than the caregiver originally expected, leading to stress and burnout. Another effect caused by this can be the caregiver blaming themselves by feeling like they are failing to give proper care, which, in reality, can often be very far from the truth. If the caregiver does not receive help from anyone else, the task of watching over the victim becomes a daunting twenty for hour task. Sometimes, the caregiver won’t be allowed quality sleep. Over 66 percent of home caregivers suffer from some form of psychological or physical illness. The most common illness that is resulted from giving care to Alzheimer’s disease is depression. The caregiver needs to monitor their emotional well-being as well as the well-being as the person that they are giving care to. Usually, giving care to those with dementia is actually more stressful than giving care to those with cancer. When the caregiver is a family member and not a professional, the emotional toll is often even greater. It is important for caregivers to remember that they need to take care of themselves first and
"Forgiving My Father", a poem written by Lucille Clifton, is about a relationship between a daughter and her father. Lucille Clifton is a female poet/author for several poems and children 's book. She was born in 1936 "in a small town near Buffalo, New York"; she attended Howard University, and she earned her teaching degree at Fredonia State Teacher 's College. She won numerous awards and recognitions, including an Emmy, for her works. She died in 2010 after a long battle with cancer. "Forgiving My Father" is part of the collection in her 1980 book Two-Headed Woman (Schilb and Clifford 270). In this poem, Clifton described a daughter 's memories of her father led her to become angry with him, sympathize with him, and eventually forgive him.
Parents who are supported in their caregiving role are better able to nurture their children, who have a better chance to grow up to be productive, contributing members of society. Research has demonstrated that programs such as parenting education, support groups, and home visiting are effective and produce positive, significant results for parents and their children. (p. 75)
Furthermore, assessment of the caregiver’s perception of the health and functional status of the patient, the preparedness of the caregiver for the job of caregiving is assessed.
Also, the whole family needs to come to term with the health condition, make change in priorities and schedule, and keep the family. For example, it can be much more stressful for a young or a newly married couple because they may have more experience to overcome life's difficulties. As a result, as with individual maturation, family development can be delayed or even revert to a previous level of functioning (Hockenberry, p 762.) Therefore, health care providers need to apply family development theory while planning care for a child and family with chronic health condition. Indeed, family centered care should be a part of that intervention. Parents and family members have huge and comprehensive caregiving responsibilities for their chronically ill child at home or at hospital. Moreover, the main goal taking care of chronic ill child is to “minimize the progression of the disease and maximize the child’s physical, cognitive, psychological potential” (Hockenberry, p 763). Therefore, it is essential to family being part of the child care to give highest quality of care. On the other hand, we are as a part of the health care provider need to give attention to all
Holding onto grudges for a long period of time can sometimes make a person forget that there are some things you have to let go. Forgiveness is the understanding of situations and realizing that they may not be as serious as it was thought to be before. Just from the title of the poem, Forgiving My Father, it could be perceived as a poem that focuses on forgiveness, yet it’s main focus is on the negative qualities of Clifton 's father, who appears to have been a poor patriarch to both his wife and daughter through his own irresponsibility. The father was taking more than he was giving and was portrayed as an poor father and husband. The daughter explains that her mother gave her all and her father had nothing to offer. In Lucille Clifton’s , “Forgiving my Father,” Clifton’s endless stress from her deceased parents pushed her to forgive their wrongdoings and let go of the burden.
-Sonnenberg, E. 2008.Caregiver Stress: The Impact of Chronic Disease on the Family. Available at: http://www.beliefnet.com/healthandhealing/getcontent.aspx?cid=74397.Access date 21 December 2013.
An Explication of “Forgiving My Father” When I first read “Forgiving My Father,” by Lucille Clifton, I was confused about the meaning of the poem. I thought that it was going to be about her forgiving her father, but I never noticed her actually forgiving her father. By analyzing the overall message, the diction, and the structure of “forgiving my father,” I realized that she never forgives her father. Although she tried to forgive him, there was too much hate, and eventually she walked away from his grave. The diction that Clifton uses in the poem is very interesting.
Kaakinen, J. R., Gedaly-Duff, V., Coehlo, D. P., & Harmon Hanson, S. M. (2010). Family Health Care Nursing: Theory, Practice and Research. (4th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis .
Primary caregivers are given an opportunity to take care of their loved ones; however, this job comes with a lot of stress and its consequences (Tsai, 2003). Primary caregivers take care of those with a chronic illness such as a family member or friend, are given a task that is so immense that it induces a lot of stress. In the previous decades, many research articles have developed studies which focused on stressors that were associated with the task of being the primary caregiver; yet, a theory surrounding this topic has not been developed until the early 2000s. Tsai (2003) developed the Theory of Caregiver Stress based on the Roy Adaptation Model to identify the caregiver’s response, perceptions, and adaptations to the stress and burden that primary caregiver’s experience.
In health care, there are many different approaches throughout the field of nursing. When considering the field of family nursing, there are four different approaches to caring for patients. This paper will discuss the different approaches along with a scenario that covers that approach. The approaches that will be discussed include family as a context, family as a client, family as a system, and family as a component to society. Each of these scenarios are approach differently within the field of nursing.
My father passed away in 1991, two weeks before Christmas. I was 25 at the time but until then I had not grown up. I was still an ignorant youth that only cared about finding the next party. My role model was now gone, forcing me to reevaluate the direction my life was heading. I needed to reexamine some of the lessons he taught me through the years.
Caregiving is an essential and very necessary aspect of the medical field. However, caregiving is also one of the most strenuous and stressful positions that exists. The patients require constant supervision, precise care and an extremely high level of patience, tolerance and skill. Eventually, this type of care begins to take a physical, emotional and financial toll on the caregiver. Because of the adverse effects of this profession, the Theory of Caregiver Stress was developed to aid those working in this difficult profession.
Upagya Rai (Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Christ University). During my internship the previous summer I had observed how parents or spouses of the clients would sit for hours waiting for their loved ones to finish their assessments or go through treatment. This got me wondering about the psychological health of the primary caregivers. I was specifically interested in how the feeling of resentment played a role in the relationship between the client and the caregiver and if it ever affected the quality of care provided. After a thorough review of literature I decided to conduct a study based on the Phenomenological Research Design. 17 participants were selected who then completed the Caregiver Resentment Scale; 7 individuals out of the 17 who scored high on resentment were then invited for a semi-structured qualitative interview. Four global themes were generated after a Thematic Analysis of the data. Results of the study suggested that although primary caregivers faced various stressors in the caregiving situation, this did not significantly affect the relationship with the patient or the quality of care provided, as there were a lot of protective and cultural factors at play. The research had important implications in the field of Psycho-Oncology and