American
talk show host Leeza Gibbons has a personal interest in Alzheimer's disease and
caregiving. Her mother was diagnosed with the disease –
and Ms. Gibbons promised her that she
would "tell her story and make it count."
To
make good on that promise she established the Leeza Gibbons Memory Foundation
in 2002. The main program of the
foundation is Leeza's Place (http://www.leezascareconnection.org or check it out on Facebook)
which has facilities across the country.
The
mission of the organization is to support caregivers so they may have positive
experiences with their caregiving. To
that end, Leeza's Place offers the Ten Commandments for Caregivers.
The
first commandment is "Take Your Oxygen First." We are all told on airplanes that we must
secure our own oxygen masks before helping our children. If we don't help ourselves first, we won't be
able to help them. Caregiving can be enormously demanding and a caregiver who
experiences burnout can't assist anyone else.
Caregivers (I wish I had a synonym for this term) must learn to care for
themselves – body, mind, and soul. I
have to admit I didn’t follow this rule when being the caregiver for my
parents, and I regret that.
It's
such an important concept that, Ms. Gibbons
uses this first commandment as the title for her book about caregiving. Co-written with a psychologist/social worker
and a physician, Take Your Oxygen First: Protecting Your
Health and Happiness While Caring for a Loved One with Memory Loss, was published last year.
More on the Ten
Commandments for Caregivers next time.
