Show 33: Coping With Caregiver Stress

On Kids These Days! we talk about issues of interest to families and children, but children doesn’t always mean young kids - everyone is someone’s child. As part of a family, caring for ill or aging parents, siblings, children, spouses or grandparents is often a reality for people of ALL ages and it’s not an easy job. There is much emotion wrapped up in seeing to the everyday needs of someone you love.

IN-STUDIO GUESTS: We're looking at caregiver stress from three different angles: caring for the chronically ill, caring for aging parents and caring for a mentally ill family member. Sarah Gonzales is in the hosting chair for Shana Sheehy this week, and joining her in the studio are Gary Barg, founder of Today's Caregiver magazine; Francine Harbour, director of the Anchorage chapter of the National Alliance for Mental Illness; and Sandra Kerns, program developer and manager for Oncology Support Services at Providence Alaska Medical Center where she also oversees the Susan Butcher Family Center, The Healing Arts Program, and Clinical Support Groups

DID YOU KNOW? 40% to 70% of family caregivers have clinically significant symptoms of depression with approximately a quarter to half of these caregivers meeting the diagnostic criteria for major depression. [Source: National Family Caregivers Assoc.]

FEATURED STORIES:

• Kids & Stress: Parents may be unaware of how the way in which they handle stress (or don’t) is being observed and absorbed by their kids. The Early Life Stress Research Program at Stanford University studies kids and stress, then develops methods to help stressed kids become more resilient. Contributor Jessica Cochran spoke with the program's lead researcher, Hilit Kletter, to learn more.

• The Sandwich Generation: Millions of Americans are caring for aging parents, as well as raising children at the same time; this group of people who are caring for family members on both ends of the age spectrum are called The Sandwich Generation. Producer Sarah Gonzales spoke with journalist, columnist and speaker Carol Abaya whose Sandwich Generation Survival Course has been supporting this demographic for many years. She spoke to us from New Jersey.