There are a number of studies that have been done in the past few years by the National Alliance for Caregiving, Commission on Long-Term Care and the Bipartisan Policy Center that highlight the struggles of familial caregivers and have made recommendations to Congress, Health and Human Services, Labor, and Veterans Affairs departments to implement changes to Medicare and Medicaid to view caregivers as part of the health team and to develop strategies to help assist the caregivers and alleviate some of the burden on them and their families (Greene & Hunt, 2017). The National Family Caregiver Support Program (NFCSP) was authorized in 2000 to help family caregivers get information about support services, counseling, training and support groups. Additionally, the Lifespan Respite Care Act of 2006 helped caregivers find relief services to be able to take a break from the arduous work of caregiving (Greene & Hunt, 2017). These are the first steps to assist caregivers find relief from the high degree of burden that they carry to provide care to a loved one for a disease which will ultimately take their life. More research is needed to analyze both positive and negative effects of caregiving as most of the current research concentrates solely on the negative effects (Semiatin & O’Connor, 2012).…
