Empowerment: A Pain Caregiver’s Perspective

Abstract

This chapter discusses pain management from a caregiver's perspective. Pain control issues are only one of the many challenges facing caregivers, but they are often the most difficult. Practitioners play a major role in assisting and supporting caregivers, and they have the power to transform the caregiving experience with information, education, and compassion. Perhaps the most important goal is to acknowledge that caregiving is a difficult job each and every day, but that it is also one of the most rewarding and selfless actions a person can take. I never heard a doctor or nurse simply state that caring for a terminally ill child was an excruciatingly difficult task, but that it is also a calling to which I had been chosen. It would have made a remarkable difference for my daughter's providers to tell me that they had all the confidence in the world in my abilities and that we were doing a wonderful job as a family caring for our daughter and sister. Caregivers need to hear the words. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)