Time to Talk about Family Caregiver’s Mental Health
May is Mental Health Awareness Month, a national movement to raise awareness about mental health. One of Adhera Health’s mantras is “There is no health without mental health” because mental health is so incredibly important to general wellness.
Over the past year, our clinical and technical teams have been working closely with healthcare providers, individuals with chronic conditions, and their family caregivers designing and implementing adaptive self-management digital programs that improve the overall health and wellbeing of both the chronic-care patient and their family caregiver.
Since this is Mental Health Awareness Month, Adhera Health wants to bring awareness to the mental wellbeing of family caregivers, who are often forgotten. According to the CDC, nearly two-thirds of unpaid caregivers of adults reported adverse mental or behavioral health symptoms. In addition, 27% of parents of children under 18 reported their mental health had worsened during the COVID pandemic.
This is a major problem because research has shown that a family caregiver's health can affect the entire family and impact the individual's health outcomes. Specifically, the mental wellbeing of parents taking care of a child with a chronic condition has been associated with less effective parenting and poorer disease management.
This is why it's important to provide a comprehensive therapeutic approach to chronic care patients that must include addressing the physical and mental wellness needs of family caregivers.
The good news is that digital tools have been shown to help with self-management, education, and coaching support to reduce a family caregiver’s depression, stress, and anxiety.
“ Caregivers want to feel heard, and supported and that their doubts are resolved as soon as possible,” said Silvia Quer, Palomas, PsyD, Adhera Health Digital Health Research Associate who’s worked directly with family caregivers in several clinical trials. “Usually a medical consultation has a short duration, where the goal is to deal with chronic disease. However, when the patient and caregiver come home and encounter everyday situations involving the chronic condition, it is the moment when doubts, fears, anxiety, and stress assault.”
This is the moment when digital programs have their greatest prominence. The family caregiver can open the app, and get information related to their physical condition as well as tools to manage the disease. When negative feelings appear, the family caregiver finds highly personalized self-management tools to deal with their mental wellbeing. All this support brings peace of mind and increases self-esteem and self-confidence.
Family caregivers need training, support, and reminders of self-care to improve their health, wellbeing, and overall quality of life. When this happens, the health-related quality of life improves for everyone in the family, and digital health tools and programs can help with this.
Contact us to find out more about how Adhera Health empowers family caregivers of individuals with chronic diseases.
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