What should I consider before taking on the role of long-term caregiver for my parent?

What should I consider before taking on the role of long-term caregiver for my parent?

I think before you consider stepping in as a caregiver for your parent in a home setting or community setting, you have to consider your own life goals. And it's really hard to predict how long it's going to be, and with most circumstances, obviously if it's a hospice situation, if somebody's got a very bad prognosis, then it's time limited. Sometimes you're looking at a many, many year commitment where as you start off the needs may be relatively small, but they're going to get bigger and bigger as times goes by because the natural progression, the natural aging process is that people get weaker, have more medical problems and require more care and needs. So, that's one thing to consider. The other is your own emotional well-being. For example, in people who are caregivers for dementia patients, with family members with dementia, the rate of depression is just astonishingly high. It's not a 100%, but it's mighty close to it. It's probably at least 80% suffer significant clinical depression. So you need to make sure that you'll be able to take care of yourself too. If you can't take of yourself, you won't be of any use to your loved ones.