Heroes DHS Divisions Director Equal Opportunity Chief Counsel Admin. Levine is Director of Families and Health Care Project at the United Hospital Fund in New York . It is a powerful and compelling look at what millions of ordinary citizens unexpectedly experience the complex, difficult, challenging, draining, loving, inspiring, and frustrating role of caregiver. AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving found over 22 million Americans serving as caregivers.
Shock is often the first reaction of a caregiver.
One minute their loved one is in a hospital receiving the finest, most technologically advance care in the world. Upon discharge, a whole New World emerges. In many cases, participants reported, the patient after discharge required nursing skills or equipment they did not possess and had little time to acquire. Many caregivers felt they were expected to do things for which they were not trained. One daughter, whose mother died of cancer, said she was shocked to learn that their mother would be bedridden and would need a catheter when she came home.