Caring for a loved one with schizophrenia can be as time consuming as a second job. On average, schizophrenia caregivers spend 31 hours per week taking care of their loved one. This includes taking them to medical appointments, coordinating their care, doing household chores, managing their finances, supervising their medication, running errands, and shopping.
Do spouses count?
If they act as a caregiver as outlined above.
I don’t see emotional blackmail in the article so probably not.
I don’t have a caregiver. However, my husband is a huge support for me. He can be gone for weeks at a time and I can manage the house, work full-time, care for the house, kids and animals. However, I need the support and companionship for my mental health. He helps me with reality checks. It’s a big thing.
Currently my parents help me out a lot. Sometimes they don’t need to help as much but other times I rely on them greatly.
I’d classify them as caregivers.
At one time in the past, both my parents were my caregivers.
Today my dad helps me out with certain things like washing dishes and going with me to certain places but I no longer consider him to be my caregiver.
He’s 91 years old and if anything I’ve become his caregiver
I do in a way but I try and do what I can as I hate being a burden
But they need to be recognised as providing a level of support no one else on this planet cares enough to do
With out my parents I could have ended in bad shape
My daughter has done a carer’s assessment,so I guess so. It’s for the autism related adaptive functioning difficulties, rather than for the mental health related issues. She, in no particular of importance, sorts my medication, takes me to appointments, deals generally with my physical health related matters,collects my weekly grocery shopping - and brings it to me, phones official people like the council/housing association on my behalf, cooks meals for me to put in the freezer.
I stopped getting visits from the cpn in 2014 and i have cared for my Mum, so i was the carer, i need to care for myself now so I’m my own carer lol, i checked the box for none.
Hubby handles physical chores, but I deal with finances, appointments, paperwork, etc. However, he does a lot of things that I don’t think a “normal” marriage would require. Not all of it is schizophrenia, though. Some of it is physical, like my back or knees. I just can’t do some things that I used to do.
No, I don’t really need one either. I just need more money.