Caregiving from a Distance
BY: Diane Snyder Cowan, MA, MT-BC, CHPCA
CATEGORY: Grief and Loss
PUBLICATION: About Grief
Now that summer is here, you may find yourself thinking about picnics, barbeques, and vacations. Some of you who have had the experience of being a long distance caregiver may now consider visiting family during your time off.
Distance caregiving is the experience of providing instrumental and emotional support to an ill loved one who is geographically distant from you. Now that your loved one has died, you have become the long distance bereaved.
Some common themes associated with long distance caregiving and long distance bereavement are feeling disconnected or excluded from others and a lack of communication or information. In addition to common grief reactions, the long distance bereaved may also experience feelings of guilt for not being there or anger about decisions that were made.
If your loved one in a different town was in a hospice program, you may be able to access a hospice bereavement program where you live to provide you with grief support. Ask the hospice that cared for your loved one to assist you in finding bereavement services in your home town.