Caregiver Burnout
Care partners for persons with Parkinson's Disease (PwPD) quite often experience physical, socioeconomic, and psychological demand changes when they begin caring for PwPD and throughout the course of their care (Perez et al., 2022). This source states that the caregiver can experience financial strain, physical strain from increased mobility and assistance changes over the course of the disease, and often times they miss out on sleep and socialization leading to significantly decreased quality of life (QOL) and increased burden on the caregiver.
Depression, anxiety, and apathy are some of the non-motor symptoms that can add to caregiver burden and decreased QOL along with decreased mobility and increased need for assistance in most activities of daily living (ADLs) (Henry et al., 2020).
Another study found that in general, caregivers report spending more than 16 hours per day acting as a carer and most reported that they felt as though they could rarely leave the person they cared for alone (Hand et al., 2019). This study found that most of those carers reported higher levels of stress or strain and lower QOL.
Some studies have reported that cohabitating caregivers, those that life with the person needing care, report significantly worse health status and anxiety or depression, compared to those who are non-cohabitating (Carpinelli et al., 2023)
Remote Interventions Can Help
In a systematic review conducted by Suntai et al., in 2021, 12 articles about caregiver burden improvement were reviewed. In 10 out of the 12 articles, 83.3%, the findings showed that caregiver stress was Improved as a result of remote interventions. All studies that looked at phone interventions, online interventions, and counselor-assisted interventions reported improved outcomes for caregivers.