24/7 caregiving for a child with high needs can push parents to their limits.
Creary is not alone in feeling the extra pressure. Parents of kids with a range of developmental and physical disabilities have been reporting challenging and even untenable caregiving situations, since the pandemic took hold. Tanis Miller is a mother of four whose 16-year-old son, Knox, has multiple diagnoses, including quadrispastic cerebral palsy, microcephaly, both cortical visual blindness and optic nerve hypoplasia, bilateral hearing loss and brain damage.
Miller is keenly aware of the potential effects of COVID-19 on a medically fragile kid like Knox, and it’s worrying. To keep him safe and healthy, her older children are isolating in their respective locales, and her husband is unable to work from home during the pandemic. All this means that she is taking care of the majority her son’s needs in what is shaping up to be an indefinite period of time.
“Caregiving impacts both mental and physical health. One of the issues is that caregiving is a long-term activity for families and we have major gaps in services and supports, which poses a tremendous stress. Rates of depression and anxiety are higher for these parents.” If you are a parenting a child with special needs and worried about burnout, as you well know, there are no magic solutions at this time. Here are some ways, however, to help reduce stress levels:In many cases, when a child requires specialized care, another family member or friend will not have the skills and knowledge to participate in caregiving.
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