The Systems Break Our Heart

How do the systems break your heart?

I think about recent stories family caregivers have shared with me.

One spoke about traveling 2 1/2 hours with his partner so she could receive cancer treatments. His partner works in a hospital in their home town. But her insurance, which she receives through her employer (the hospital), won’t cover treatment in her hospital. So she must travel to a different hospital system 2 1/2 hours away to receive treatment.

Another shared she waited 7 1/2 years for her daughter, who has autism, to start a day program. Another shared that he has to fight with the Emergency Room nurses and doctors to start a treatment he knows will ease his wife’s symptoms. (He even carries instructions from other physicians to try to convince the doctors but to no avail.)

We often focus on the heartache and heartbreak of our caregiving experience without really talking about how the systems contribute to that heartache.

We battle the insurance company for coverage and benefits.

We sit with our caree in a hallway in an over-crowded Emergency Room.

Family members and friends tell us what to do while are always too busy to help.

We get the run-around within the system to try get programs and services we need.

We wait too long for too little help.

The systems — all 17 of them — break our hearts. The systems we manage, advocate and navigate within include:

Climate | Community | Education | Family | Financial | Health Care | Legal | Medical | Narcissism | Nervous | Payer | Provider | Relationship | Social | Spiritual | Technology | Workplace

I’d love to know: How do the systems break your heart?

(Image by Luda Kot from Pixabay.)

Resources

• Our next Caregiving Listener Project will happen on October 10. Join me on June 24 at 1 p.m. ET to learn how to get involved as a Story-Teller and volunteer Listener.

• Our Fifth Annual Beginning Again Retreat, a virtual event, will happen on Saturday, October 26. Submit a proposal to present.

• Imagine connecting to a Caregiving Mentor when caregiving began for you. Your experience may have been much better with the support from a volunteer Caregiving Mentor who understands your stress and challenges. You can make the difference you wish you had received; become a volunteer Certified Caregiving Mentor. You can Pay What You Want for this 15-hour training.

• We have one more Nomo Smart Care to give away. Reach out if you’d like to test this product.

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