Fighting For—Not With—Your Loved One’s Healthcare Professionals
Family caregivers’ relationships with their loved ones’ healthcare professionals can be that of warmly appreciative partners or coldly suspicious antagonists. But there are ways that family caregivers can build mutual trust with physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professions for the sake of their loved ones and themselves. In this workshop with a clinical psychologist, healthcare consultant, and caregiving author and AARP.org columnist, we’ll discuss why professionals’ ideas about “patient-centered care” sometimes excludes family members, how caregivers can present themselves as effective collaborators, and ways to productively question professionals’ treatment plans. Case illustrations will be used throughout.
Learning Objectives:
• Review research on caregiver-physician relationships
• Identify three roles caregivers can play as partners in their loved ones’ healthcare
• Describe three ways of coping when healthcare professionals dismiss caregivers’ concerns
When: Wednesday, March 31, from 11 a.m. to 12 noon (PT)
Cost: No charge
Registration: Click here
Presenter: Dr. Barry J. Jacobs is a clinical psychologist, healthcare consultant, and a monthly columnist on family caregiving for AARP.org. He is also the author of The Emotional Survival Guide for Caregivers—Looking After Yourself and Your Family While Helping an Aging Parent and co-author of AARP Meditations for Caregivers—Practical, Emotional and Spiritual Support for You and Your Family and AARP Love and Meaning for Couples After 50—The 10 Challenges to Great Relationships and How to Overcome Them. Dr. Jacobs is an Honorary Board Member for the Well Spouse Association and a national spokesperson on family caregiving for the American Heart Association.
