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| There are so many ways Americans are becoming caregivers for family members these days – whether they planned on it or not. This year we’ve shared stories about people taking care of relatives with long COVID; seniors raising grandchildren as the opioid epidemic takes a toll on parents; and family members taking on nursing duties as hospitals send more patients home to receive care.
In all of these conversations caregivers ask: Who’s taking care of us?
Around the world, women and girls perform the majority of caregiving work. In Colombia’s capital Bogotá, an estimated 90% of women have caregiving responsibilities at home, and 1.2 million women care for family members full time. In 2020, the city started providing education, wellness and recreation opportunities for these unpaid workers in neighborhoods around the city in community centers called Manzanas del Cuidado, or Care Blocks.
For example, participants can take Cumbia dance lessons or earn a high school diploma. "Whenever you don't leave the house, your problems seem bigger than they actually are," says Ruth Infante, a single mother of three who also helps her parents with chronic illnesses. Nowadays, when she attends classes at her local care block, "my stress levels go down automatically,” she says. In addition to improving wellness and boosting self-esteem in participants’ day to day, the program aims to help more women find paying work, and shake up gender roles at home, too. NPR’s Rhitu Chatterjee reports on how taking time for yourself can help caregivers.
Also: Advice for caregivers, by caregivers for preventing burnout. |
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Robert Jay Lifton has been writing about the psychological effects of trauma and violence since the 1960s. He’s interviewed survivors of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Auschwitz, and Vietnam veterans; and authored books on genocide, cults, and global terrorism.
Now, at age 97, he’s still at it. In the preface to his latest book Surviving Our Catastrophes: Resilience and Renewal from Hiroshima to the Covid-19 Pandemic, Lifton says he studies such dark topics because “one must examine a society’s response to catastrophe in order to have any sense of that society’s resilience and health.” Examining catastrophe, he writes, implies that alternatives to catastrophe exist.
Lifton spoke with NPR contributor Joanne Silberner about “survivor power”: where people who have suffered from trauma become agents who mobilize to prevent future tragedy or help others to cope with loss. For example, “There are so many Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors who on the one hand suffered as victims and on the other hand found ways to form a collective narrative and have contributed to political stands against the bomb,” Lifton says.
Other people who have been through trauma, however, are unwilling or unable to talk about what happened. Lifton says it’s important to make contact with these survivors “to help them regain confidence in the continuity of human life.” Read the interview and learn where Lifton finds inspiration in the stories of survivors.
Plus: Why you should stop complimenting people for being 'resilient'
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We hope you enjoyed these stories. Find more of NPR's health journalism on Shots.
All the best,
Andrea Muraskin and your NPR Health editors |
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