A Caregiver’s Role in Recovery

Caregiving is a big role that includes so many responsibilities: physical, mental, emotional.

Caregivers must make sure their brain injured survivor:

• Eats
• Bathes

Veronica needed a shower chair and supervision in the shower for months before she could be trusted not to fall.

• Has someone to get to doctor’s appointments and can be there to advocate for them.

Having someone there to advocate is super important. Veronica can’t often remember what needs to be talked about, even occasionally forgetting what she is there for. She also needs me with her, in my case having a brain injury too, to write down important things that need to be remembered.

• Is taught the right, polite, and appropriate things they should say and do.

Their filters are broken, and they can get in trouble with things they say and do if someone is not there to protect their survivor and explain the situation. Veronica, for many years, had the tendency to take off her shirt in public. Sometimes a brain injured person’s actions and rage in public can have the potential for them to be put in jail.

• Is taught to use memory reminders

Have paper and a pen available at all times. I keep it in every room in our house. Some people like to use a white board, a calendar, or their cell phones for reminders of appointments and important information.

• Makes good decisions and not be taken advantage of.

For example: Veronica couldn’t count money, and she would just hold her hand out with her money in it for the cashier to take the amount that was needed to pay.  She needed to be retaught how to count money and use it properly.

Spending too much money and becoming overdrawn in her bank account can be a problem for Veronica and it is something we must watch very closely, asking to see her bank account before each purchase she makes. Veronica has spent her entire social security amount in one day. She, 16y years later, must have us, her caregivers, overlook her spending. On another note, we as caregivers can NEVER be too careful. She has in the past been just in another room of a “friends” house and has been raped by a man, choosing not to yell because she didn’t want to ruin our “friendship”. Sometimes we caregivers are too trusting. We are beyond careful now and talk and talk about the importance of her safety no matter who she is with. She is more important than anyone to us. Also, many brain injured people are easily taken advantage of spending or lending money to the wrong people.

• To be safe in the kitchen

For years Veronica didn’t remember how to use a knife. We thought she just wanted us to cut her food without realizing she needed us to. Kitchen safety. Veronica once took a hot pan out of the oven without a glove and burned her hand. We didn’t realize this, too, was something that needed to be retaught and relearned.  Not turning off burners and oven after use is common as well.

• Needs transportation wherever they need or want to go

When Veronica was hospitalized after her severe traumatic brain injury, I decided as mom/caregiver that I would drive her anywhere she wanted or needed to go. It is very rare that I ever don’t take her where she wants to go since she cannot drive herself.

• Some females need help being taken care of during menstruation

That is something I never thought of until we were put in that situation.

• Is given love and attention

Veronica and I have brain injuries, and we have been very fortunate in our lives. We are so blessed to have support from our family. In the beginning none of us knew anything about brain injuries. I am Veronica’s caregiver, and we learned as we went along this difficult journey together. I cannot even imagine not having anyone to take care of us, a loved one, a caregiver, a friend. Being a caregiver is often a role someone is thrown into after their loved one is brain injured.

Here is an available solution for caregivers that was not available when we were starting out.

Julie Wall is an Occupational Therapist that can help you as a new caregiver.

She is on Facebook and runs a program called Caregiving Through a Therapeutic Lens. If you are interested in attaining knowledge in your new role, please email her at JulieOTliving@gmail.com

She is here to help you.

There are just times when a brain injured person needs to be saved from themselves.

If you would like to hear more about the tidbits of our lives as brain injured WARRIORS, please read my book titled,

A Miracle a Day, One Day at a Time, Hope After Traumatic Brain Injury

https://store.bookbaby.com/book/a-miracle-a-day-one-day-at-a-time

Have a blessed week.