En el año 2000 empezamos a ejercer nuestra profesión y entramos en los hogares de mucha personas. Allí descubrimos pacientes muy frágiles con patologías crónicas graves (Demencia, Parkinson, ICTUS, patología mental severa, enfermedades degenerativas…). Pacientes con necesidades clínicas importantes y de cuidados intensos.
También descubrimos el rol de los cuidadores, en su mayoría familiares cercanos, sin límite de horario ni paga, la mayoría únicamente conmovidos por el afecto. Un grupo social al que le costaba pedir ayuda porque para ellos significaba aceptar sus propias limitaciones. Estos cuidadores no sabían reconocer su propio riesgo de sobrecarga, de aislamiento y cansancio excesivo. Ignoraban y retrasaban sus necesidades físicas y psíquicas que terminaban no siendo atendidas.
Ya entonces existían los Centros de Respiro pero había un grupo de cuidadores que a pesar del desgaste físico y psicológico derivado de su situación diaria no querían dejar a su familiar en ningún centro.
BACKGROUND
Back in the day, when we began to work as health professionals and had to attend to many people at home, we realized that there is a particular population group of very fragile patients with serious chronic pathologies, such as dementia, Parkinson’s disease, stroke complications, severe mental health conditions and degenerative diseases, amongst others. These are patients with significant clinical needs that require round the clock attention and intensive care.
We were also taken by the role of caregivers, mostly close family members with no time limit or pay, who took care of their own moved by affection. We noticed that his social group, the caregivers, found it difficult to ask for help because, for them, it meant accepting their own limitations. They were also unaware of how to identify their own risk of overload, isolation and excessive fatigue; subsequently ignoring and delaying their physical and mental needs which, in general, ended up not being tended to.
At the time Respite Centers were running already, but there was a group of caregivers who, despite the physical and psychological wear and tear brought on by their daily situation, did not want to leave their family members in any of them.
