Did you know that there are about 210 000 (and counting!) caregivers in Singapore? 70% of these caregivers are above 40 years old. That’s to say, a pretty significant proportion of Singaporeans are caregivers to their families, and can struggle with many of the heavy responsibilities that such a duty entails. This could lead to caregiver burnout, which we’re going to go into more depth today.
Who is a caregiver?
You may believe that a caregiver only extends to the elderly, perhaps the relationship between an adult daughter looking after her elderly mother. That’s not entirely wrong, but it doesn’t encompass the full scope of a caregiver, exactly.
Actually, a caregiver is defined as a person tending to the needs of the people who are elderly, ill or injured. They provide assistance with daily tasks, medical care and emotional support, according to this article by the Singapore Hospice Council. This means that a caregiver is a broad term for a role that can be filled by not only family members, but also professional caregivers employed by healthcare services, and volunteers.
What is caregiver burnout?
Caregiver burnout is a state of physical, mental and emotional exhaustion experienced by caregivers. This can happen for a variety of reasons, which we’ll get to in a bit, but it mainly boils down to the caregiver feeling overwhelmed by their responsibilities. When this exhaustion persists, it becomes draining for the caregiver. They feel fatigued and this can eventually lead to caregiver burnout.
Caregiver burnout is more common than you’d think. In Singapore, a survey done with 200 family caregivers revealed that 40% of them were at risk of depression. This could partly be due to Singapore’s aging population, but the fact is that caregiving can be difficult (to say the least) – and this is taking its toll on our population.
It’s particularly pertinent to identify and treat caregiver burnout. As a caregiver, you might feel that your own needs and wants take a backseat to that of the person in your care. However, constantly deprioritising yourself will cause your mental, physical and emotional health to worsen. And after a certain point, this results in a state too fatigued to meaningfully care for your loved one.
What are the symptoms of caregiver burnout?
The symptoms of caregiver burnout show in our mental, physical and emotional state. Here is a list of examples of how caregiver burnout could present itself in each state. However, this list is by no means exhaustive and even if one doesn’t meet every symptom on the list, it’s still possible that they could suffer from caregiver burnout.
General symptoms
- Low energy for personal self-care
- Deriving less joy from activities one previously enjoyed
- Withdrawing from others socially
Mental symptoms
- Difficulty concentrating
- Feeling that one lacks the skills and knowledge to help patient
- Lowered self-esteem
Physical symptoms
- Changes in appetite
- Disruptions to sleep patterns / insomnia
- Frequent headaches
- Fatigue
Emotional symptoms
- Feelings of unhappiness / resentment towards loved one
- Feeling frustrated / tired / irritable more frequently
- Feeling hopeless
- Lacking motivation
Factors that can contribute to caregiver burnout
Role confusion
A caregiver’s tasks can include everything from meal prep to taking time and emotional energy to listen to their loved one’s story. Often, this is balanced alongside other responsibilities for their loved one. For example, consider the mother of a child with Level 3 autism, defined as a person with autism who requires ‘very substantial support’.
Assuming that the mother is the child’s primary caregiver, she will have to play an active role in her child’s therapies and support her child physically and emotionally. However, she also has to commit her role as a spouse, and support her husband. Beyond that, she also plays a role as an employee, a daughter, and a sister.
The point is that many caregivers also play other roles beyond just a caregiver to their loved one. When combined, all of this can feel very overwhelming and contribute to caregiver burnout.
Lack of control
A lack of control can also contribute towards caregiver burnout. The caregiver may feel uncertain about their loved one’s diagnosis, or even feel helpless. Often, they will also have to be the person making the final decision regarding the care of their loved one, which can be extremely stressful.
For example, the primary caregiver has to decide, weigh and prioritise the options of treatments and support available. They also have to consider the financial choices and concessions regarding their loved one’s care. Most of these factors are not things that they can directly control, which can lead to the caregiver feeling overwhelmed and frustrated. When such a factor (and the resultant emotional fallout) persists for long periods of time, it can eventually lead to caregiver burnout.
Too many responsibilities
A caregiver’s responsibilities can include:
- Helping their loved one through daily routines, such as bathing
- Preparing meals for their loved one
- Completing their loved one’s household chores
- Managing their loved one’s finances
- Keeping track of their loved one’s medicines
- Monitoring their loved one’s health
- Communicating their loved ones’ needs to healthcare professionals
among other duties. The caregiver may feel that it’s their sole responsibility to juggle all of the above concerns relating to their loved one, even though it’s realistically too much for one person. Moreover, these responsibilities are stacked up on top of their roles as employees, spouses, siblings and other duties. Hence, the sheer volume of responsibilities can actively contribute towards caregiver burnout.
How caregiver burnout is treated
Find a support network
There are several organisations in Singapore dedicated to supporting not only the patients of caregivers, but the caregivers themselves. These include daycare programmes (like ONE Intervention for special needs children) or in-home care programmes. It may be helpful to look up some of these support groups who will be able to take on some of the caregiver roles and thus lighten the caregiver’s load.
Beyond such formal support groups, informal support provided by friends and family members of the caregiver can go a long way as well. They can help provide physical and emotional support, and take over more of the caregiver’s duties in order to give the caregiver a much-needed break to recover from caregiver burnout.
Practise self-care
The caregiver themselves have to practice self-care, to ensure that their burnout does not worsen. These practices don’t need to be extravagant or indulgent – in fact, the most basic self-care is often the most effective. Some examples of such self-care can include ensuring that they eat balanced meals throughout the day, and have time for sufficient sleep.
Small but intentional acts such as these ensure that the caregiver is able to breathe and improves their mental and physical state. And for more tips on self-care, check out this article – The Importance of Self-Care: Tips for Parents Raising a Child with Autism – One Intervention Centre.
Ask for and accept help
Most importantly, the caregiver themselves have to be willing to ask for and accept help from their family and friends. At very least, they should be able to rely on someone to provide emotional support since caregiving can take quite a heavy toll emotionally. However, the caregiver’s family and friends can also help with other tangible tasks such as helping to liaise with healthcare professionals, or keeping track of times at which medication must be taken.
There we have it: This Is Caregiver Burnout Simplified Now. We hope that this article has cleared up some of your questions regarding caregiver burnout! If it hasn’t simply drop us a comment below – we’ll reply as soon as we can 💬👇
