The Caregiver Profile

Who are these caregivers and what do they help with? Learn about their life and caregiving situation.

Dana - A Day in the Life of a Family Caregiver

Dana has been caring for her parent for over 5 years.
She lives with her parent who has memory issues and long-term physical conditions, and sees a doctor about twice per month.
Dana is employed full-time, and sometimes her family helps with caregiving.

A timeline of Dana's day as a caregiver.

Dana's day and caregiving activities

At 7am, Dana gets ready for work, wakes up her parent, and helps transfer them out of bed. This causes physical and emotional strain.

At 8am, Dana helps her parent with showering, getting dressed, and toileting. This causes physical and emotional strain.

At 9am, Dana goes to work and calls to ask her parent about eating breakfast. This causes emotional strain.

At 10am, Dana makes calls to set up medical appointments and to arrange services for her parent. This causes emotional and financial strain.

At 12pm, Dana eats lunch while she calls home to ask if her parent ate lunch and took medications. She says, "When I'm away for work, I rely on the info (I get from family who's home)." This causes emotional strain.

At 2pm, Dana finds a bit of time to do finance-related caregiving tasks, including paying bills, arranging service payments, and finding information for managing her parent's money. This causes emotional and financial strain.

At 4pm, Dana leaves work early to drive her parent to medical appointments or perform other related duties. This causes physical & emotional strain.

At 5pm, Dana goes for grocery and other shopping based on her parent's needs. This causes physical, financial, and emotional strain.

At 6pm, Dana prepares dinner for herself and family. This is challenging and includes preparing ingredients, cooking, and cleaning.

At 7pm, Dana helps her parent with eating, sometimes with the support of other family members. This causes emotional strain.

At 8pm, Dana makes sure her parent takes their medications at the right time and in the right context. This causes emotional strain.

At 9pm, Dana takes care of housework, including dishes, trash, cleaning, laundry, etc. This causes physical strain.

Throughout the evening, Dana spends time with her parent and helps them to get around the house. This causes physical and emotional strain.

More about Dana

Every week Dana spends 51 hours providing direct care and 4 hours looking up related information.
Instrumental ADLs are challenging for her to help with. She seeks unpaid help for them.
Dana is showing signs of depression, and is significantly less happy compared to other caregivers. Her happiness score is a 4.6 out of 7, compared to the study's average caregiver happiness score of 5.8 out of 7.
She needs help managing her emotional and physical stress, and is reporting higher physical, emotional, and financial strain than other caregivers.