Create Your Caregiver Burnout Prevention Plan
If you are a family caregiver or a paid caregiver, you may be wondering how to identify, prevent, and solve caregiver burnout. Regardless of your role as a caregiver for an elderly parent or spouse or professionally working in a private home, care community, or nursing home, the effects of caregiver burnout are real.
Gain insights into caregiving that make caregiver burnout prevention a necessity to preserve health and well-being.
1) Aspects of care situations that result in emotional and physical stress
2) The effects of stress on the care situation and all involved
3) How to remove yourself from a care situation while feeling okay about leaving
Gain perspectives from both sides of the situation—the paid caregivers and family members who come to rely on them, the family caregiver trying to do it all, and the care recipient.
If you are a caregiver who is
burning the candle at both ends and feeling burned out, it is crucial to recognize the effects of burnout and be open to the possibility of adjusting your caregiving approach.
Aspects of care situations that result in emotional and physical stress
- If you are a professional caregiver, a certified nursing assistant, or a personal care attendant working in a private home, care community, or nursing home, preserving your health and well-being may require a change in the people you care for or a transition to a different setting.
- If you are a family caregiver, reducing emotional and physical stress may mean doing less while others take on more responsibilities, or even removing yourself from a care situation for your own health and well-being.
When a paid caregiver quits or leaves a family situation, the person who needs care and their family members can feel a significant loss because they depended on the caregiver. They may have been relieved that the care situation was stable.
Yet, if we are being realistic, we know that care situations can change in the blink of an eye – and they do from a hospitalization, a new diagnosis, or a change in physician. The stress of this uncertainty and continual changes calls attention to the value of a caregiver burnout prevention plan.
Change is hard. Stability and consistency offer comfort.
If we’re lucky, we might experience stability and consistency for short periods between more significant changes in the care status of a loved one.
As caregivers, we create our own situations through our actions and the decisions we make, just as the person who needs care created their own situations. This does not mean that situations cannot change.
If you make a mistake? Recognize it and adjust your actions accordingly. Don’t stay in a situation that will likely require more time, tasks, and care, and negatively affect your health and well-being.Tak action to manage caregiver burnout as soon as you recognize it.
Dealing With The Emotional Stress of Hiring Caregivers
For example, as a family member, you may know that hiring a caregiver through an agency or individually as an independent contractor can be a time-consuming process that requires planning and effort to try out multiple caregivers until you find the right one or two. And then everything runs smoothly until the next unexpected event.
A caregiver quits or leaves to work with another client. How can you avoid having to start all over again in hiring a caregiver?
Work with multiple agencies and caregivers. So, if one leaves, you already have an established relationship with another caregiver and another care agency.
Creating plans to care for aging parents can help manage the burnout that family caregivers experience. Take this
caregiver stress survey to help you recognize if you are doing too much.
The personality of the care receiver impacts the caregiver.
A good client match is important for an in-home caregiver who wants to look forward to going to work every day and feel like they are making a meaningful contribution.
The elephant in the room, which no one talks about, is caregiver burnout, affecting both family caregivers and paid caregivers, as well as the time it takes to recover from this exhaustion. Having this knowledge makes creating a plan to address caregiver burnout prevention practical.
The idea of paid caregivers extends to physicians and other medical professionals. A career taking care of people who have health problems, especially the elderly, can be exhausting. It’s not for everyone.
Burnout results from caring for the care receiver and dealing with family members. Dealing with family members can be both a pleasure and a nightmare.
Family caregivers deal with family members.
Paid caregivers deal with family members.
Family members can be emotional about care situations, which, while understandable, adds to the complexity of the situation. Depending on the personalities involved, heightened emotions can result in explosive confrontations.
Caregivers who do too much can sometimes
underestimate the needs of aging parents.How Long Does It Take to Recover From Caregiver Burnout?
Click the red arrow button in the picture below to watch the video.
Watch More Videos About Caregiving, Aging, and Health on
Pamela’s YouTube ChannelThe Complexity of Paid Caregiving
For paid caregivers who care for or are involved with multiple clients or patients, the complexity is multiplied by the number of other people the caregiver is in contact with.
For example, a doctor’s office I recently visited had signs stating that “patient aggressiveness will not be tolerated.” This particular practice had a similar message on their voicemail.
These call-outs made me a bit uncomfortable. I don’t want to go to a practice where they have known issues with angry patients.
It made me wonder what the practice was doing (or not doing) that resulted in aggressive patients who then required them to add this message on their voicemail and display it on signs in the office.
While the purpose may have been to support a staff member who had been harassed or had a negative experience, there may have been a more patient-friendly message.
Perhaps something like, “You are important to us. We know waiting can be frustrating. We’re doing our best to make you feel valued. Thank you for your patience as we work as quickly as possible so we can focus our attention on you.”
In my experience, people respond more positively to acknowledgments and updates about delays than to being called out for behavior they may not have displayed.
An example of where delays are common is flying. The flight attendants don’t control the flight schedules. The unexpected happens. They do their best to inform and update customers regarding delays. Communication is usually appreciated even in challenging situations where customers may be concerned about missing a flight connection.
Caregivers Can Feel Unappreciated
Healthcare providers, who are a different type of caregiver, are overworked and stressed. While they do their best, keeping patients happy isn’t their primary goal. Treating patients to improve health outcomes and quality of life is the primary goal. If patients give a positive rating to the service they receive, that’s a plus.
Many caregivers, even though they may want a spouse or an elderly parent to be happy, are not responsible for making other people happy. Some caregivers seek approval or gratitude from their caregiving role.
Being approval-seeking may not work out as expected because it can be difficult to meet the expectations of others when they were never discussed in detail. In most cases, there was no caregiving agreement at the time the caregiver became involved.
Then there are the day-to-day frustrations that family caregivers and individuals needing care face when trying to call and schedule doctor appointments. Or they go to a doctor appointment and prescriptions aren’t sent to the pharmacy, or if they are sent, they are declined by insurance. So the person has to start all over again, calling the doctor’s office to find a solution.
Some of these interactions can get a little animated because the expectation is that the doctor’s office will do its job. Healthcare isn’t a consumer good with regular satisfaction surveys about patient experiences.
In many cases, it’s a take-it-or-leave-it situation because they have too many patients to care for, not enough time, and not enough staff. These types of pressure cooker situations exist for paid caregivers, family caregivers, and individuals who need care, all of whom are trying to do their best.
In these cases, it’s best to have
an emergency medical plan for the care of elderly parents.The More People Involved, The More Complicated Situations Can Become
Having more than one client and dealing with multiple health conditions can result in a learning curve for a paid caregiver. Add to this, learning how to manage the different personalities of family members.
If you’re a family member and you have complicated relationships with your parents or siblings, you know how hard this can be. Imagine someone coming in from the outside of the family, trying to get along with everyone.
Paid caregivers respond to changes in a patient’s condition or the worsening of their health. A caregiver may leave for the day and come back to work the next day. The patient they were caring for died overnight.
There’s no time for grieving. There’s only time to attend to the next patient. In addition to patients, paid caregivers interact with office staff, schedulers, and other personnel at their workplace.
If a caregiver is an independent contractor, they are on their own with no support from a company, which may seem easier for the family. Working independently means that the caregiver should possess higher-level skills to handle tasks that office staff at a care agency might typically perform for them. I say “should” because this isn’t always the case.
Paid caregivers who are independent contractors can easily take on too much work, become overextended beyond their skill level, and become personally involved with a client and their family, which can lead to control issues.
The caregiver can take sides with family members, isolate the person they care for from family members, because they have the most contact with the person who needs care, etc. Situations of elder abuse are very common with caregivers who have little supervision or accountability. As a family member, it’s important to be involved in monitoring the activities of all paid caregivers.
Mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion is common for all caregivers. It is no wonder, then, that a caregiver might need a change.
The effects of emotional and physical stress on a care situation.
If you are a caregiver, you may love your job or the person you care for, but you may need a rotation in the people you care for or a total change of situation. How do you know?
Caregiver Burnout Prevention: Mental and Physical Exhaustion
Studies confirm that 43-50% of paid caregivers experience emotional exhaustion and
caregiver stress. They begin to detach from work, experience lower levels of job satisfaction, and have an intention to leave, which results in higher turnover, poor health, and wellbeing.
The experience of caregiver burnout is linked with having less empathy toward people with dementia, who make up the majority of people cared for in skilled nursing facilities.
Family caregivers of persons with dementia experience higher levels of stress.
Caregivers working in care communities may also witness other staff engaging in abusive or neglectful behavior, missing or rushing care tasks, which can be disturbing. Bullying is reported to happen between supervisors and care staff.
Caregiver burnout symptoms
For family caregivers, the rate of burnout can be comparable to that of paid caregivers. Family caregivers can become physically exhausted, impatient, irritable, feel underappreciated, exhibit less empathy, or display anger or aggressive behavior toward a spouse, elderly parent, or the person they care for.
Caregiver exhaustion is more highly associated with caring for someone with dementia who cannot be left alone even for a few minutes. Some family caregivers dream of leaving or running away.
If this is your situation, take action before your situation becomes one of potential elder neglect or abuse because you are experiencing burnout.
Caregivers across the board share many similarities in terms of burnout and exhaustion. People have emotional limits for dealing with complicated and stressful situations. When the emotional limit is reached – that’s it. Some caregivers walk away and remain silent. Others blow up or melt down.
Focusing On Tasks to Reduce Feeling Emotionally Stressed
Many caregivers focus on tasks when stressed, so they don’t have to deal with emotions or human connections. The problem is that all of the people caregivers deal with want an emotional connection.
Care receivers, patients, or clients want their concerns and problems to be acknowledged and addressed. They want help, empathy, care, and love.
However, there comes a point when the caregiver’s energy is exhausted and they have nothing more to give.
Caregivers, too, want an emotional connection. They want someone to listen to them and acknowledge their feelings. They want to be appreciated for their efforts.
In many cases, the caregiver and the care recipient share a lot in common. When these needs are not met on either side, the care situation becomes a train wreck and stops dead on the tracks.
Some family members with dementia or a mental illness can be verbally or physically abusive or resistant to care. These behaviors place additional stress on a care situation. Caregivers who lack experience or training in these areas are more likely to experience burnout.
How to remove yourself from a care situation while feeling okay about leaving or doing less?
Let’s look at this question from another perspective. If you have worked or had a job, how many times have you changed jobs during your lifetime, and for what reasons?
Caregiving—whether you are a family member or a paid caregiver—is a job. It can also be viewed as a duty and a responsibility when there are family attachments and expectations.
Either way, it’s still work, tasks, projects, and things that take up time, as well as emotional encounters and attachments.
So, to remove yourself from a care situation that is causing emotional and physical burnout while feeling okay about leaving or doing less, consider your life, health, and well-being. Caregiving for an older person who will have more health complications over time is an uncertain future.
A future that can last 10, 20, 30, 40, or more years. Caring for an elderly family member is different from raising a baby, who grows more independent with time. An 18-year-old can take care of themselves if they’ve been raised to be self-sufficient and independent.
Family caregiving can be indefinite.
Family caregivers have a job with an indefinite time frame, which is stressful. Paid caregivers who choose a career as a physician, because of all the effort they put into education, most likely also do this for a lifetime.
The same applies to nurses and other healthcare professionals. Other care staff, such as CNAs who work in private homes, assisted living facilities, memory care centers, or nursing homes, may hold these positions while pursuing other career goals.
For caregivers, there is a tie to family, and for professionals, an investment in education, as well as the difficulty of changing careers. For some, paid caregiving is a temporary or transitory job while they’re trying to figure out what they really want do.
On the other hand, some paid in-home caregivers are retirees, who don’t really need the income but who want to do something fulfilling.
Even still, caregiver burnout prevention is a topic to discuss.
If you are a paid caregiver, start recognizing signs of burnout early. Discuss a potential change in care situation with your company.
It can take time to recover from caregiver burnout, especially if you stay in a challenging caregiving role. If you care for someone with advanced dementia, you may need a change for 6 months to someone with lower care needs.
If you work in a nursing home, a good change might be working in assisted living. Recognize the need to change and make the change before you’re totally burned out.
Believe it or not, as much as they like you, the person you care for and their family can live without you. They may miss you, and you may miss them.
Cherish and be thankful for the experience. Your health and well-being are important. You have a duty to care for yourself as much as you care for others.
Caregiver Burnout Prevention and Transition Planning
The same applies to family caregivers who don’t have to agree to an indefinite role.
For family caregivers,
establishing clear care expectations and boundaries from the outset is the best approach. However, few caregivers know the importance of having these discussions. Others would feel guilty for bringing up discussions around expectations and boundary setting.
Caregiver burnout prevention benefits from establishing expectations and boundaries that look like this.
“I agree to spend 5 hours helping you every week, and I will do these things. Beyond this, we need to find someone else to help you.”If you have already attempted discussions about setting expectations with an elderly parent with no success, it may be time to move on. If so, make the time to research and identify other care options or find someone who can assist you in this process.
If you have siblings who don’t help, ask them to help you do the research. Let them know you plan to finish in three months, so a plan is needed for Mom or Dad. If they refuse to help, then at least you’ve asked, and they won’t be surprised when you leave.
Let your parents or the person you care for know that you need a change. Set a timeframe and agree to collaborate on exploring other care options.
If you are a family member who has given up paid employment and you depend on the person you care for – for a place to live and financial support then you probably have a much longer timeline because you’ve got to get back into the workforce so you can support yourself while finding someone else to care for your loved one – unless you have a friend or another family member who you can live with while you put your life back together.
Being the Only Caregiver Does Not Have to be a Forever Commitment
Regardless of the reason for the need for change – paid caregiver burnout or family caregiver burnout you need a plan to remove yourself or reduce the time spent caregiving.
Creating this plan happens through your actions. If you want to make it happen, you must set a timeline and establish goals each week to devote less time to caregiving or remove yourself from the care situation.
I know many caregivers who struggle with this. I know other caregivers who worry about what other people will think, or about disappointing or abandoning a family member who needs care.
You are not abandoning a loved one if you find another care situation for them, which is possible.
Do whatever it takes to
reclaim your physical health and well-being. Time to solve caregiver burnout will happen within the timeframe you commit if you take daily action. The more you delay, the more time will pass with no improvement in your level of burnout, exhaustion, health condition, or well-being.
Make progress with your caregiver burnout prevention plan today.
Looking For Help Caring for Elderly Parents? Find the Information, Including Step-by-Step Processes, in Pamela’s Online Program.
©2025 Pamela D. Wilson All Rights Reserved.