Caregivers

Caregivers

Since spending more time at our local hospital as a volunteer chaplain, I am impressed by the quality of care provided to patients by doctors, nurses, emergency room staff and volunteers. In the past, my casual visits to hospitalized church members only gave me a cursory exposure to the intensity of caregiving that takes place there.

Recently, at our chaplains’ staff meeting, we were shown a video that addressed the topic of caregiving. I hadn’t given much thought to a chaplain’s work as caregiving; just more at meeting a patient’s spiritual needs. The video revealed the importance and intensity of caregiving at every level: sick or terminally ill patients, child care, nurturing marriage relationships and just about anyone who cares for another.

Here are seven basic principles of caregiving:

1.    The healthiest way to care for another is to care for yourself.

2.    By focusing on your feelings, you can focus beyond your feelings.

3.    To be close, you must establish boundaries.

4.    In accepting the helplessness of your helping, you become a better helper.

5.    Caregiving is more than giving care. It is also receiving care.

6.    As a caregiver your strength is in your flexibility.

7.    In the everydayness of your caregiving there lies something more: sacredness.

We are all caregivers of one kind or another. As the poet John Donne penned, “no man is an island….” There is danger in caregiving: we can lose ourselves, our health, our perspective, our humor. Yet, there is great reward. As Jesus tells us, “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”

If you are interested in this caregiver’s DVD, the title is The Grit and Grace of Being a Caregiver by James E. Miller. It can be ordered on the internet at Willowgreen.com.