3 Effective Emergency Plans for Caregivers: Ensuring Care and Self-Care During Crises

In this episode of "Feeling Full & Finally Free," Jeanette Yates emphasizes the importance of comprehensive emergency plans for caregivers, whether caring for their loved ones at home or taking a well-deserved break. 

Learn how to identify potential emergencies, establish emergency contacts, and implement immediate actions during crises. 

Discover the benefits of a communication plan, having essential documents ready, and practicing self-care during and after a crisis. 

Jeanette also shares a self-care checklist to help caregivers maintain their well-being during challenging times.

Show Notes:

Summary: Jeanette Yates shares valuable insights on the importance of having detailed emergency plans for caregivers. Whether you're with your care recipient or taking a break, these plans ensure that your loved one receives the necessary care and that you maintain peace of mind. The episode covers identifying potential emergencies, establishing emergency contacts, and taking immediate action during crises. Jeanette emphasizes the need for communication plans and keeping essential documents accessible. Plus, she provides a self-care checklist to help caregivers care for themselves during and after a crisis. 

Takeaways:

• Creating a detailed emergency plan is essential for caregivers.
• Identify potential emergencies and have a list of trusted emergency contacts.
• Establish a communication plan to stay informed and updated during a crisis.
• Keep essential documents like medical records, insurance information, and advance directives accessible.
• Practice self-care during and after a crisis to maintain well-being and resilience.

Sound Bites:

• "Having an emergency plan in place ensures that your loved one gets the care they need while you maintain peace of mind."
• "Whether you're with your care recipient or taking a break, identify reliable backup caregivers and provide them with detailed care plans."
• "During a crisis, taking care of yourself is just as important as taking care of your loved one."

Links and Resources:

• BoundariesWorkshop: "Say No and Mean It Without Being Mean" 
• Download Your FREE Emergency Plans Kit (3 Plans You Need!)
• Hit Pause & Press On: Guided Meditations to keep you grounded when the bottom drops out!

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We believe you cannot give more of yourself until you heal the wounds, replenish your being and reconnect to the fullness of who you are, embracing the purpose you‘ve been called to live.

Transcript

JEANETTE (00:00)
welcome back to Feeling Full and Finally Free, A Caregiver's Healing Journey. I'm Jeanette Yates and today we're going to tackle a topic that is related to what we have been talking about, which is this idea of being able to take a break, actually being able to relax while you're doing that break or you're enjoying that break, even if there is some sort of emergency or something going on with your loved one when you're not with them. And so today we're going to be talking about something that I

should have done first before I talked about those other items. But it is that you should have a plan in place, whether you're caregiving actively or whether you're taking a break for when an emergency happens. So one of the ways that I can take a break that I can not be with my mom 24 seven and still know that everything is okay is that I know what happens in case of emergency.

I know what happens when I'm with her in case of emergency, and I know what happens when I am not with her in cases of emergency. And since we have a lot of emergencies in our caregiving situation, this is something that we have put in place a long time ago, and it really, really helps me. And so today, that's what we're gonna talk about. Okay, so like I said, whether you're with your care recipient, with your parents or your loved one taking care of them, or you're taking that much needed break.

we're gonna talk about having this plan in place which ensures that your loved one gets the care they need while you also maintain that peace of mind. So peace of mind is important when you're taking your break, but it's also important when you're actively in those moments of having to make crucial decisions during a crisis or emergency. So we'll be discussing two types of plans today, one for when you're with them, with your loved one, and one for when you're away, whether

taking a vacation, taking a break, or just doing the other parts of your life. We're gonna dive into these plans and how they can help you navigate crises with confidence and care. Now I do also wanna tell you that don't worry about jotting everything down. You're probably listening to this while doing multiple things. That's okay. If you look in the show notes in the description,

you will see a download where you can download both of these plans and then there's going to be another plan that talks more specifically about your self -care during crisis times. So let's go ahead and dive in. First thing we're gonna discuss today is emergency plan for when, you know, just on your regular caregiving process. So you want to have this in place, even if you're like, I can't take a break, breaks don't happen in my world, you still need an emergency plan because emergencies are gonna happen.

when you're there and when you're not there. So let's talk about what to do and how to set up your emergency plan when an emergency arises. So some of this stuff you may have, like you may know off the top of your head, or you may have some of this in one place and some of this information in another place. And one of the things that you're gonna wanna do is make sure that we actually

all of these elements of the crisis plan or of the emergency plan together and that we have multiple ways for people to access this crisis plan. So we're gonna talk about that. This will help you make sure that you can act quickly and efficiently and reduce the stress as much as possible for you during this time. Okay, so the first thing that you're going to want to do is identify potential

emergencies, potential known emergencies. So depending on your loved one's specific health conditions, their age, et cetera, there is going to be some things that you know are likely to happen or have a higher probability of happening. You want to make sure that you have made a list of those specific things and what to look out for. So if

a loved one is prone to or high risk for strokes or seizures, what are some things that you need to be aware of or someone else that may be caring for them with you might need to be aware of also any allergic reactions that they might need to be aware of. So I would make a list of those things that we know about. There's always gonna be that unknown stuff, but we wanna know.

what are some things that we need to be looking out for with this particular person? If there is a high likelihood of accidents like falls, cuts or burns, you want to list those things out and then that'll help you when you're to build your plan on what to do. And then of course, depending on your loved one's mental or cognitive capability, you also want to

to consider any behavioral emergencies that are more likely to happen. So are they prone to sudden confusion, agitation or aggression? Do they get lost? Do they tend to flee or run away? These are things that you want to think about now, ahead of time and make a list so that you can make an individual strategy for prevention.

Right, but then we also know that they're here for us to think about, well, even if we do all of this work to prevent it, which I'm not gonna go into all the prevention stuff today, but even if we have done all this stuff to prevent and this still happens, what are we gonna do, right? We wanna have all this stuff listed out. Okay, and then the next thing, this is an obvious one, but I just wanna make sure we have it all in the right place, is to make sure that you have your emergency contact. So you need to list yourself.

as the first emergency contact, if you are the primary caregiver, in this package, even though, like I said, you're gonna be there, but you just wanna have that there in case. And then we want to start listing other primary, secondary, we wanna have their name, their phone number, and their relationship, okay? So who, what, Or who, what, how are they connected?

the healthcare provider of your choice, the doctors, and then any specialist. We wanna have that all in one place. Of course, don't forget that 911 is always the call in an emergency emergency, okay? But we know that we also have people that we need to contact in case of emergency. So whether it's the doctor, maybe, I know when my mom lived at home, she had a home health system that we would also contact.

they would often come and help me get her ready for when the ambulance got there or something like that. So I would call both at the same time. These are examples of primary contacts or emergency contacts that you need to have in that section. And then we also wanna list out emergency actions needed and necessary. Of course, for medical emergencies, we always call 911. We provide the dispatcher with the care risk

care recipients, sorry, tongue tied today, their symptoms and medical history. Now listen, I'm gonna make a caveat

My mother's medical history goes back all the way to 1984. I do not have to give my mom's entire medical history over the phone to the 911 operator. What I need to do is zero in on the current symptoms and their main medical concern or their main medical issues of the time. So I will let the 911 operator

my mom's having trouble breathing, she has her disease, which often causes this type of condition. And then they'll ask you more questions and you can answer them, of course. This is really good to have your loved one's medical history

in this place as well. So this is another area where you're gonna wanna make sure that, especially if they have a really long medical history, you're gonna want to have that information in place. We're gonna get more into that here in a minute. But you want to list the symptoms that your loved one is having in their medical history, relevant medical history to the 911 dispatcher. And then of course, if you are trained in CPR, if you are certified in CPR,

and first aid, you can administer that. They will walk you through some of that as well. Now, any kind of accident that happens, if they fall or stumble or something like that, that is when, again, if you're not sure, call 911. It's always better to call if you're not sure. But of course, if you are trained in that CPR first aid, you quickly assess what's going on and provide.

the help is needed and then of course call 911 if things seem like they get worse. I have been told many times by many professionals, whenever you're in doubt, call 911. Even if you're like, oh, I think I can handle it. They'll come tell you, they'll come evaluate and then tell you whether or not you can handle it. Okay, so don't feel like you have to figure that out on your own. I think a lot of times we feel like we have to do it all by ourselves even in...

You know, like we don't want to bother the 911 operator, but really, you know, we're that's what they're there for. They're there to help us make sure that the care that is needed is what is being given. So when in doubt, call the number. And then, of course, there are other issues, especially when your loved one has cognitive or mental decline that are such as behavioral.

Remember that you can still call 911. They will help you figure out who else to call. You also will want to call the healthcare provider, their on -call person, so whoever's managing that. I would call that number as well. And then also remember, this is where all those practices come in that I talk about on the self -care side of things, where we're staying calm.

and we are remembering to be present in the moment and not allow ourselves to spiral out of control while we're trying to manage the situation. Now, this is where I was gonna come back to this, like I mentioned. So essential information documents. This is where, and I recommend you getting like a three ring binder with dividers that you can label so that when you're on the phone with 911 and they ask for the medical.

history, etc. You can flip to the essential information and documents. So you want to keep all medical records. You want to keep the list of the medical history, any insurance information and advanced directives. You want to keep that all in the same place. Not only is this helpful for just answering questions with 911 or with when the ambulance shows up and they ask you questions, you have all this in one place.

But also if you do have to go to the hospital, go to the ER and you're having interactions with healthcare providers there, I can tell you, like I've mentioned many times, over 37 hospital visits, they're always gonna ask you for the same information, even if you just were there two weeks ago. They're gonna run through it. So be prepared to talk about all of the health

be prepared to show them proof of insurance, et cetera. Every time you go, sometimes you luck out like we have and then like my mom would just go and they would go, yeah, we just, have you in the system from two weeks ago when you were here. It's all the same. Okay, fine. They would move on from that, but they could also ask to see all that information and they do ask for any power of attorney.

any of that information, they ask for a hard copy every single time. So just know that they do. That is what I have learned, at least in my experience. They will ask for that every single time. So make sure you have that in your binder, your emergency binder. This is very important to have. now crisis happens, you're calling 911, you're talking to the paramedics, all this kind of stuff. And then you realize,

you have siblings or other family members that might need to know this is going on. And this is where the communication plan comes in place. Now, I love this and I wish I had done this better like earlier on. And this is you want to notify the primary and secondary emergency contacts as soon as possible. So you're the primary contact. If you have siblings, you will want to, you

If you have people, maybe it's your siblings or their siblings, whoever happens to be the person, the people that are closest to this situation. Now here's the deal. You can just start texting and calling everybody. What I recommend for people that, especially when you're in the middle of dealing with an emergency situation, one of the things that was really helpful to me is to notify one, maybe two people.

and have them let other people know. So back in the day when I was growing up in the Baptist church, we had a phone tree for when somebody would, know, there would be a prayer request or something or an emergency, you know, a church emergency. And the phone tree would work like the church secretary calls this one person and that one person calls two other people. And then that those two people call two other people.

and it goes out, you wanna have something like that. It doesn't have to be as big as your whole church, right? But you don't need to put the pressure on yourself to make sure that every single person that might want to know this information knows this information. So your call list may be your spouse and your church, or your spouse and your sibling. Or maybe you have in your plan,

I'm gonna call my spouse and then they're gonna call my siblings, et cetera, et cetera. Whatever works best for you and your family, but you want to have a plan. That way somebody doesn't get offended if you're not the person that's calling them because they know, this is just part of the plan. The plan has been activated. That's why I'm getting this call from this person versus the person with my mom. And then you can also set up ways to maintain communication.

I will tell you that in my experience, having something set up like a carrying bridge for any kind of situation that's gonna go on longer than 24 hours. So if your loved one goes to the emergency room, gets some stitches or a bandaid or something like that, you don't need to send out a carrying bridge thing unless you just want to, right? You don't need to post on Facebook unless you just want

But if it's an ongoing situation, I highly recommend some website like CaringBridge, I will link that in the show notes, so that you can communicate that, communicate the care, the progress, the recovery, all things like that. But for immediate emergencies, or you're not really sure what's going on, just notify the people that you feel like need to know right now, and then you can expand that communication as needed. So you may think it's going to be a short,

24 hour situation and five days later, you're still dealing with it. Well, then the communication plan gets bigger. Maybe instead of just doing the text tree of the main people in the care plan, you are now doing more of a caring bridge situation. But it's important to whoever is in the plan that whoever is involved in the care, that the communication is maintained and updates are given.

It may be even helpful too if you have a large family or a lot of people that always want to know, give them an expectation of how often you are going to update. That way they're not hopefully bothering you too much with what the update is. You can say, I'm going to update everybody at this time unless I need to do it sooner. So that would be a good recommendation too. Now, again, you have all of this stuff in a binder together and I recommend to, this

something that I started doing within the last few years. So I have a lot of, I do have a three, I have more than one three ring binder at this point.

and I have the legal documents in a binder and I also have them in a binder that has all of this stuff in it. But also, but also, if you can have digital copies saved on your Google Drive or downloads on your phone or some way, some place that you can kind of lock it down a little bit so you can have a little bit of security is good. But that way if you happen to not remember to grab the binder or your

you are outing and something happens and you don't have the binder. You have some of this information accessed at your fingertips. Okay, so that's just a quick suggestion there. All right, so now let's discuss the same emergency type of plan for when you're not the one that's there. Okay, now first of all, you have this binder that you've made, so that's great. Because you're going to take that binder and ensure that the person giving the care

has that binder. It has your number in it, remember, because we included you as the primary caregiver or the primary emergency contact. And then this also, so the basic, like the emergency plan is there. Now, in addition to you having this emergency plan binder, you also just want to have like basic information. So this may be in another binder where it's just like, when other people are taking care, these are some helpful things to know about.

my loved one, their routine, et cetera, et So one thing that's helpful to do ahead of time is, know, there's a lot of times people are like, I would take a break, but you know, I can't figure out who, what, when. Well, when people, if this happens, I know this doesn't always happen, but sometimes people will say to you, if you ever need a break, just give me a call. When somebody says that, don't just nod your head, say, great, can I add you to the list of backup, you know, sitters?

you know, or helpers and get their contact information right then on the spot. Or if you already have it and they're saying that to you, say, great, is it okay if I add you to our folder for, you know, our list of people that are willing to help and add them to the section in this binder for when other people are carrying? Okay, so you have this list of people to contact.

Not only is that gonna help you find someone who can be a backup caregiver, and maybe this is like your sibling or your spouse or your loved one's relatives, something like that. So it may be part of your family, but it may also be a list of your friends. Not only is this helpful for when you want that break and you're trying to find somebody, but think about when you leave to take that break and person A is doing the sitting. Well, what if something happens?

or they feel like they need a little bit of extra support. Now they have a list of people that they can also call, right? So you can have this list of people and then you want to provide some care plan details. So in your binder that you're just leaving for the person when you're taking a break, you've given them the emergency plan, but this is just their day -to -day plan. This is the care plan for your loved ones. So when you're doing this, and this is why this is related to the emergency

or to your vacation, you know, I really need a break plan, right? Because the more details you can write down ahead of time, the less you have to worry about whether or not you told them everything that they need to know, because it's all in the binder, okay? So providing a detailed daily routine, meals, medications, and possible activities to do, any doctor's appointments or anything that might be happening while you're gone.

include a summary of the medications. Remember, you can have a sheet that says, please refer to the emergency binder for medical history, allergies and emergency contacts. That way don't have to have that all in this binder as well. But you could drop it, you could just print it all out again, drop it in this binder in its own section, and then it's all in one place. And then of course,

you want to establish a communication plan. Now this communication plan is different than that emergency communication plan, right? Because this is gonna be when someone's watching your loved one, when you're on vacation or taking a break, what is a schedule for check -ins? Now if you're just taking an afternoon break, I highly encourage you not to check in if you don't think it's necessary. Take your break and then you'll be back there later in the afternoon, right? But if you're going at, you know, if you're gonna be gone for a longer amount of time, establish a schedule for regular check -ins.

with the person that is caring for your loved one. Now, I like to, I kind of keep it loosey goosey, because I'm still able to, you know, kind of chit chat with my mom even when I'm gone. But let's say that she is, you know, in, you know, not able to talk, then I'm gonna call the nurses, my plan is that I just call the nurses on the unit. Now, if my relatives are there, or

I have hired a sitter to come sit with her, then I will also communicate with them. But, you know, like the sitter that spends a lot of time with her, she just messages me in the evening after she's done with everything. And she knows I may not look at that information until the next morning, but it gives me an idea of what was going on, anything of note that happened, and, you know, even a few fun things. You also will want to communicate what your preferred method is. And this is something

that especially with the phones and they're like different, you have different abilities to do do not disturb and stuff. One of the things that I have done is I have made sure that the numbers that I want to come through in case of emergency are all gonna come through no matter what focus I have my phone on. Another thing you can do is you

choose, at least on Apple phones, you can choose to say, well, I want this person's phone calls to come through, but not their text messages. That way, then I could tell the caregiver, listen, if it's an emergency, like, you know, mom's going to the hospital, call me. That's gonna come through. If you just need to give me some information, text me, I'll get that when I am available, okay?

So there's several different ways that you can do this communication, but get creative with it so that you're really able to know, they just communicating with me, just like, here's what happened today, or is this an emergency that needs to be handled right away? That'll keep you from constantly having to look at your phone or checking your emails or checking your texts. You'll know this is when I need to be able to do this and this is when I'm not. And then remember, I think in last week's session I talked about

different ways to even have someone else in charge of your phone so that you're not even having to decide whether or not to answer or look at the text at all. And then you want to define an emergency contact protocol for immediate communication. So like I said a few minutes ago, call me if it's an emergency, text me if it's not. Emergency is phone call, information is text. That's how I do it. All right, but whatever works best for you. All right, and then we want to review any emergency procedures

especially ones that we've already outlined in our emergency plan with our person that is taking over and giving, allowing us to get that respite, right? We want to outline any steps we want to review the emergency plan with them, making sure that they understand and know where everything is, make sure they know what to do in case of emergencies. You can also, you know, verify with them any,

trainings they do have or do not have and then let that guide your directions for them as well. And then another thing that's very helpful, like I said, especially if you're going to be gone for more than just an afternoon, you wanna list any resources available in the community. So like if I were gonna be gone for a week or two weeks, I might make sure that the phone numbers for the transportation, the transport team.

Like if my mom wanted to go somewhere for fun, like how do we get her transported to where she wants to go? There's also you know any other Community, know, like maybe here's the number to the church. Here's the number to her You know book club or whatever that she might you know, these are her best friends things like that. You want to have other Services support and things like that. And then of course You

In all of those things, this is all just prep. So that emergency plan and then the backup plan. So like the backup caregiver plan. Those are the two things we've just discussed. If you head to the show notes, you can download both of those. I have little templates for you that you can download. You can download those. But the last thing I wanna talk about here before we wrap up today is self -care in all of this. Self -care in all of this. The reason we have that backup plan, the reason we have that emergency plan

is so that when we are in the middle of emergency, we have the presence of mind to know that we have it covered and we can do what we need to do and we don't need to be stressed or worried. That's part of self -care. When we are having our respite, when we are having our break, we know that we have left the person in charge equipped to do the work so that we can take this break, so that we can enjoy this time of self -care. And so I wanna talk for just this last few minutes on

how important it is to take care of yourself even in the midst of doing important things for your loved one. So here are some things to think about. So like if you're the one that's in the middle of the emergency and you're taking, you're calling 911, you're heading to the ER, all those kind of things. Here are some things that I want you to focus on for yourself. So you have all the plan in place, you have that emergency plan in place,

You've activated the plan, it's all going well. What I want you to remember for yourself during this time, stay hydrated. Make sure to have a water bottle on you at all times. Or money for the vending machine. Make sure that you have small, nutritious snacks that help you stay energized. So the truth is you may not get to have dinner.

or breakfast, but you can always have a snack in your purse. Okay, so when I'm heading out the door to go to the emergency room, I grab a water and a snack, okay? And then another thing that helps me is to practice deep breathing, breath work, mindfulness of breath.

These are practices that I incorporate into my daily routine anyway. One thing you can do is on the way to the emergency room, you can listen to a guided meditation. I have a couple for you. Again, I will leave those in the show notes. You can practice just breathing and knowing that you're breathing literally. That's all you have to do. That is mindfulness. So when you're driving to the ER, when you're waiting in the waiting room, breathe.

and know that you are breathing. That's all it takes. That's all it takes. Focus on that breath for just a few minutes. It will automatically reduce your stress level, even if it's just for a few minutes. And then remember to take turns. So some people are sitters and they just wanna sit and freeze and other people are pacers and they wanna just pace around the whole time. Try to do a combination of both. Try to move a little bit. Try to sit for a little

move for a little bit and sit for a little bit. It's okay if, know, you don't have to time it or anything, but just when you get the opportunity to get up and walk down the hall for a minute, walk down the hall for a minute. When you get an opportunity to sit down for a minute, sit down for a minute. So those are just some short, you know, basic, do this immediately. Do all these things in that first few minutes.

As we continue through an emergency, maybe it's getting longer than we planned or than we thought, we didn't plan it or it be an emergency probably, right? But we wanna also take care of that mental and emotional self -care. We're gonna use positive self -talk to remind ourselves of things. You can simply just tell yourself, I am able, I am capable of handling this. I am present in this moment. I am doing

I am capable, I am present in this moment, I am doing enough, okay? Just as simple as that. You can also allow yourself to feel your emotions. So a lot of times, I know this for me, and there will be a time where you have to, you might have to lock it down, like you don't have time to cry or freak out, right? You're gonna pull it together, you're gonna make these decisions, but then also,

when you have time, allow those emotions to move through your body. This is very important because we need to have time to process the emotions, to process what we've been through. So whether that emergency period of time is very short or it seems like it's taking a long time, you need to allow yourself, excuse me, to process your emotions.

One of the things that I always talk about when I work with caregivers is if you think about how animals process their emergency situations, okay, so when the deer is getting chased by the predator animal, they're gonna freeze or they're gonna...

fly, flee, they're gonna run, they're gonna flight. They usually don't fight the predator, right, but they're gonna either run away or they're gonna freeze. And after the predator, maybe they've frozen and the predator, you know, moves on to find something else, right? Before that deer is going to start on its merry way for the rest of the day, it allows,

the emotion, all of that energy that was pent up, ready to fight, ready to run, ready to do whatever, right? That was the body's trauma response. There is something getting ready to attack me, I need to be ready. That's the same thing that's going on with us when our loved one is going through an emergency. We are like, I need to figure out what to

I'm going to fight, which is usually what we're doing. We're fighting for our loved ones' attention. Sometimes we freeze. But then when it's over, we need to allow the feelings to move through us, all of that energy to move through us. So if you look at a National Geographic video or something, I'm sure there's something more modern than that. I'm dating myself. You'll notice that the animal shakes its body a lot after the...

after it's been frozen, it shakes its body and then it pops on and bounces out to its, you know, go along its merry way. You're gonna need to do the same thing or you're just gonna keep walking around clamped up and all that stuff is gonna be in. And that's where that sickness and that disease of our body turns into disease, y 'all, okay? So let it get out. Again, for me, one of the ways that I do that is through mindfulness practices and movement, mindful movement practices such as somatic yoga.

Some of my guided mindfulness work is through walking. It's very helpful, allows that to move through my body. So there's lots of different ways to do that, whatever works best for you. But that's why, you know, a lot of times, get it, you know, we, say we got to get, know, we got to do something, we got to move. It's allowing that stuff to get out the emotions to move through our bodies, that all that adrenaline, all that, all that pent up.

energy and it gets everything back into rhythm again. And it's a very layman's way of explaining it, but that's the way my brain, my brain sees it. It's like, we've got to get everything back working together. All the systems, because when you're in that fight or flight, only the necessary symptoms are working. Because that's where, you know, our body is

priming our body for that exactly what is needed for right then, then we wanna have everything working together. So we gotta get that movement going, all, process all that out, process our emotions, process, let our body process everything, and then we feel better. Okay, and then also remember when you're in this, you know, these extreme times.

Delegating tasks is okay. So, you a lot of times, you know, when my mom would be in emergency situations and my kids were relatively young, I would have to delegate some of my parenting responsibilities to other people. It's part of what you have to do. I would have to delegate some of my work responsibilities to other people. It is okay to do that. That is part of what it means to be a caregiver. If you're trying to do it all by yourself.

It is only going to burden you and your loved one more and the other people that rely on you more. Delegate, it's okay. It does not make you a failure at caregiving, at parenting, at coworking, at any of the things. You also need to set boundaries to protect your time and energy. I know I've mentioned lots of times on this podcast, but even when my mom is in the emergency room or even when she is in the ICU, I still make sure that I set boundaries around my time.

I make sure to get rest and I sometimes will push beyond my capacity for short periods of time, but I will not allow that to go on for too long. I will take breaks, I will go home, I will bathe, I will sleep, I will see my family. So whatever boundaries work for you in that area, that's what you need to do. Do not shy away from this.

And then also circling all the way back to why we started talking about this in the first place. Remember after a big emergency, after some sort of something that's gotten you all, know, gotten all the systems on go and you're in that heightened state, you need to take time to rest and recharge. I know it means you're gonna have to ask for it because no one's gonna give it to

but you need to take time to recharge. Your body is not designed to go from one emergency to the next emergency to the next emergency. I know this because that is what happened to me. That is what happens when I experienced my most extreme burnout is I was not giving myself the opportunity to rest and recharge. And that is why I do what I do today.

because it's that important. We need to rest and recharge. If we can only get a few minutes at first, take that few minutes, but then plan on taking longer breaks for yourself more regularly and taking care of yourself every single day. All right, make sure that during this time you are also staying connected to your friends and any support people that you have. And again, if you do not have any support in your caregiving or self -care journey,

please come to the self caregiver Facebook group. See the show notes, there'll be the link there. You can hop right on in to the Facebook group. I'd love to have you there. We would love to have you there. And then also I highly advocate if this is something that you struggle with a lot. If you really feel overwhelmed, if you really, if the idea of even having an emergency freaks you out and you're not even ready to even think about any of this and this whole conversation has made you really nervous. I get it.

I also recommend that you reach out to a therapist or counselor if you're feeling overwhelmed by any of, by the emergencies that are happening or are potentially going to happen. Please reach out to someone. And then of course, feel free to connect with us in the self caregiver Facebook group. Remember also to celebrate what you are doing, what you do have, celebrate where you...

have been where you are and where you're going in your life. Celebrate the wins for your loved one, but also celebrate the wins for yourself. You know, I'm not a toxic positivity person, but I do believe in looking for the good and even the darkest of moments. It's okay to also have those dark moments and the ability to process those dark feelings, process that hard stuff, that is a blessing within itself.

So I highly encourage you to take moments when you can to really feel your feelings. You'll be okay. This is all a big thing. This is all a lot to handle. But having these detailed emergency plans in place, whether you're with your loved one or when you're taking a break, this actually provides you with the structure that you need

for the confidence that you are gonna need to take care of these crises or know that you have equipped someone else to take care of the crises, okay? Remember, it's okay to seek help and prioritize your own wellbeing during these times. You are not.

responsible or required to do this without any help. Please know that it is okay to ask for help if your family is not helping you, if your friends cannot help you, ask the medical world for help. Social workers and case managers are in every hospital that I'm familiar with and part of what they do is help the caregivers, okay?

Lastly, if you're interested in learning more about setting boundaries and effective communication, I would love for you to head to the show notes. I've got some resources there for you in addition to the downloads of the crisis plans today. You can also...

download your self -care checklist, and then I will go ahead and drop in a couple of other resources about communication and boundaries as well. Thank you for joining me today on the Feeling Full and Finally Free podcast. Stay tuned for more episodes where we continue to explore ways to support your wellbeing while caregiving. You you are my number one goal here. I know that your loved one may be your number one goal, but you are mine, and I'm here to help you take care of yourself.

know that you are worthy of that care and do it even if you feel like you don't have the time or the support to do it. So take care and remember that you are worthy to live your life filled with joy, fulfillment and healthy boundaries. Take care.