CONTACT: Pamela D. Wilson +1 303-810-1816

Email:   Inquiry_For_Pamela@pameladwilson.com

     November 24, 2021, Golden CO- Caregiver subject matter expert Pamela D. Wilson hosts Episode 113 of The Caring Generation® podcast show for caregivers and aging adults. Today's program, Why Won't My Family Help Me, offers insights and perspectives to help family caregivers get unstuck about expectations and beliefs around receiving help. Guest Dr. Brent Roberts, Professor of Psychology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, discusses how personality traits link to health and why change at any age can be difficult.

Why Won't My Family Help Me?

The role of caregiving begins with simple tasks like grocery shopping that eventually extends to hands-on care responsibilities 24 hours a day and seven days a week. Then, caregivers struggle with unexpected changes that result in a need to find a balance between feeling out of control and overwhelmed by all of the tasks and decisions involved versus being overly controlling, diminishing the self-sufficiency of care receivers.

Family conflict often originates with parent-child relationships and affects caregiving relationships between adult children and parents later in life. Additionally, belief systems between siblings can be significantly different, affecting the way adult children view their duty and responsibility to care for aging parents.

On this program, Wilson addresses the importance of communication and education within the family to support transparency and care planning. Answers to the question of why won't my family help me and many other questions posed by caregivers are featured in weekly episodes of The Caring Generation.

Ongoing Change Impacts Balance in Caregiving Relationships

Becoming a caregiver or a care receiver involves responding to ongoing change. For caregivers, changes relating to trading time to focus on career, earning income, retirement savings, raising families, social activities, their health, and the care receiver's changing health can be challenging to manage.

The changes that occur in the daily life of an aging parent or a spouse who is the care receiver specific to health directly impact the ability to initiate and maintain self-care activities. Becoming dependent on family caregivers or others can be an intellectual and emotional struggle to accept help while maintaining as much control over daily life as possible. 

Dr. Brent Roberts – the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Brent W. Roberts is a Professor of Psychology and Director of the Center for Social and Behavioral Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Roberts received his Ph.D. from Berkeley in 1994 in Personality Psychology and worked at the University of Tulsa until 1999, when he joined the faculty at Illinois. Dr. Roberts's research has focused on determining the replicable patterns of continuity and change in personality traits across adulthood, the life experiences associated with changes in personality traits over time, and the significance of these changes for individual functioning.  

He has received multiple awards for his work, including the Carol and Ed Diener Mid-Career Award in Personality Psychology, the Theodore Millon Mid-Career Award in Personality Psychology, the Henry Murray Award, the Jack Block Award for Distinguished Research in Personality, and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Basel. In addition, he has served as the Associate Editor for the Journal of Research in Personality and Psychological Science. He is the Past President of the Association for Research in Personality.

Pamela D Wilson Offers Caregiver Support Programs Worldwide

Wilson supports family caregivers, groups, and corporations worldwide by offering education for caregivers about managing, planning, and navigating health and aging issues. More about Wilson's online courses for elderly care, individual elder care consultations, caregiver support, webinars, speaking engagements, and brand collaborations are on her website www.pameladwilson.com.