Caregiving

caregiver

As a caregiver, you may or may not be familiar with respite services. Respite care provides caregivers a temporary break from everyday caregiving. Please visit with a Nebraska Lifespan Respite Network coordinator for more information:

NLRN

Don't miss these online caregiver training & education opportunities!

Popular Questions

Where can I find online caregiver training and education opportunities?

There are many online caregiver training opportunities, both free and paid. Below are two FREE Nebraska training and education resources:

Education Series for Family Caregivers - hosted by the Nebraska Caregiver Coalition

How can I prevent or reduce challenging behaviors?

Here are tips for reducing and preventing challenging behaviors:

Make sure the individual or others are not in danger and are safe: If the individual is behaving in a way that may injure them or others, remove them from the situation or take steps to stop them.
Change the setting or location: If the individual’s behavior occurs only in certain situations, specific places, or only around certain people, you may be able to stop the behavior by changing their environment.
Create a distraction: An individual can often be distracted into stopping an undesirable behavior.
Tell the individual in advance what is happening: Prepare them if a change is going to occur, or let them know what is going to take place before it happens. Most people like routines and predictability. Changes in a normal day’s routine could upset an individual and trigger negative behaviors. Prepare them for any changes to their daily routine.
Respond calmly, speak briefly: It is hard to listen to an individual when they are upset, talking in a loud voice, or is talking so much that you cannot really hear what the individual is trying to say. Don’t try to talk about why something is right or wrong while both of you are still upset. Wait until a things are calm and then ask about how things could have been handled better.
Teach alternative behaviors: Teach the individual what you want them to DO instead of what not to do.
Offer choices: Give the individual choices to help build independence while also giving him some control over their environment.
Notice the positive: Catch the individual doing “good.” If you reinforce positive behaviors, they will continue. Praise the individual when positive behavior occurs.
Be consistent: Establish regular routines for the individual and stick with them.

De-escalation: When it comes to the de-escalation of a volatile situation, the primary goal is to avert physical aggression and diff use angry outbursts. The situation can then be processed at a later time with the individual.

Remain calm and use a quiet, even tone of voice.
When being yelled at, our automatic defense response is to raise our voices right back. However, reacting in this way can further agitate the individual. Use a quiet voice and a calming tone.
Listen to what the individual is saying.
Often individuals will calm down once they verbalize what is upsetting them. Interrupting them or shutting them down may have the effect of increasing the individual’s anger or frustration.
Validate the individual’s feelings.
Offer choices and clear consequences.

How do I manage challenging behaviors?

Here are some tips for managing challenging behaviros:

Building relationships with even the individual and practicing interventions to de-escalate problem situations when they arise. Find out what triggers in the environment might provoke or try to understand the triggers for challenging behavior. It will be useful to figure out what triggers the challenging behavior, and what they think they will gain by behaving in that way. Make sure you are supporting the individual with the right level of support. Make sure you allow the individual to make decisions, and have choices. Be consistent.
Individuals with complex needs often have trouble communicating pains and other physical problems that they may have, so these may result is extreme emotions or bad behavior.
See if the behavior is being triggered by something you cannot see. Ask yourself could it be headaches, toothaches, or even side-effects from medicines and is triggering the challenging behavior.
When an individual is acting up or misbehaving in some way, our first reaction may be to tell them to stop doing what they are doing (e.g. ‘stop kicking’ or ‘stop hitting’). It can be much more helpful to say what positive behavior you would like to see. (e.g. ‘let’s sit down and talk about what you want to do’ or ‘lets’ go for a walk’) Respect the individual. Make sure they feel respected and safe.
If you can spot early warning signs or triggers that an individual is going to have an emotional outburst or begin another form of challenging behavior, you can intervene in a positive way, and try to change the behavior by distracting the individual with other strategies or interventions.
Be aware and help when the individual is in distress. Work with the individual’s coping strategies for dealing with problems.
Challenging behavior can be a result of attention seeking so separating yourself from the individual until they settle down can be very helpful. That way, you are not rewarding challenging behavior with attention, and so encouraging more of it.

Why is my child or loved one displaying challenging behavior?

There are many possible reasons or a combination of reasons for challenging behavior:

Some individuals may bite or hit out of frustration, others become stubborn and do not follow instruction because they’re trying to be independent. However, some challenging behaviors could have a physical cause.
Several medical issues can present with challenging behavior.
Stereotyped behavior, such as rocking or pacing, may be the way a person maintains the level of stimulation or arousal they want.
Challenging behavior may be a way to communicate the need for food, drink or comfort.
Challenging behavior can be a sign of abuse, distress, anger, frustration, discomfort or pain.
Environment can play a part in challenging behaviors. This could include under/over stimulation, poor physical environment such as extremes in temperature or noise levels or inconsistencies in caregiving, awareness, approach and training.
Sometimes challenging behavior can be a sign of a wider problem with someone’s mental health.
Challenging behavior may be more likely if a person is disabled.
A mix of impairments, environment and interpersonal relationships make it more likely that a disabled person may develop a behavior, possibly challenging, to meet their needs. Remember, each behavior has a function for the person displaying it.

Most challenging behaviors are not premeditated and are not designed to upset others.

When confronted by some form of challenge, it’s always worth stepping back and asking yourself as a caregiver:

Why does this person need to go to all the effort of showing this behavior?
What’s going on from their point of view that makes them need to do this?

As a family caregiver, how can I get education on caring for my loved one with Alzheimer, dementia or other memory diseases?

The Alzheimer's Association of Nebraska offers many resources to help you undersand and care for a love one suffing from a memory disease. Visit their website for more information.

The Nebraska Deparment of Health and Human Services provides a guide to information and support on their website.

As a family caregiver where can I find support groups for myself?

The Family Caregiver Support Program assists family caregivers with individual counseling, finding or organizing support groups, and many other services.

This program is offered through your local Area Agency on Aging. For more information on this program and to find your local Area Agency on Aging click here.

How do I know if I or someone I care for is eligible for Medicaid or Medicare?

The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services can help you determine if you or a loved one are eligible for Medicaid or Medicare.

Visit their website for more information on eligiblity for Medicaid.

You can also visit the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website for more information on eligibility for Medicare, and to learn about the differences between Medicaid and Medicare.

You can also call the State Unit on Aging for more information at (402) 471-2307.

As a family caregiver, who can help me find services for my aging parent with special needs?

Your local Aging and Disabilty Resource Center (ADRC) is for Nebraskans aged 60 years or older, people with disabilities of all ages, family members, caregivers and advocates. Local ADRCs provide information, referral and assistance for accessing community services and long-term care options. Also local Area Agencies on Aging (AAA) have the option to provive ADRC services.

More information is available at the ADRC Website.

I need a break from caring for my loved one with special needs. Who can help me?

Respite is a statewide program that gives a temporary break for family care givers caring for a loved one with special needs accross the lifespan.

The Lifespan Respite Network provides information on how to search for Respite providers and get started with the process of receiving Respite services.

Find your local Respite Coordinator for any questions or assistance you may need regarding Respite services for your family.