The relationship between asthma patient and health care provider should take the form of an active partnership, according to the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program (a project of the National Institutes of Health). But your role as a caregiver is not so easily labeled. Does that mean your support isn’t needed? Not at all.

Up to 80% of home health care for the chronically ill is provided by a family member, usually a spouse. According to the National Family Caregivers Association, an estimated 25 million family members provide ongoing care for the chronically ill in the United States. And each of them would probably describe their role in the doctor-patient-caregiver relationship differently.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) cautions caregivers about taking on too strong a role in a companion’s long-term health care. When your spouse’s asthma is not yet under control, it may be necessary for you to assume a more active role (especially if he or she is hospitalized or otherwise recovering from a severe asthma episode).

In most urgent care settings, the medical staff expects you to act on behalf of an incapacitated spouse. You may answer health-related questions, handle hospital or insurance paperwork, and sometimes take responsibility for medication. As your partner’s health improves, you may find health care providers — and your spouse — including you in health management less often. Now’s the time to step back and let go.

Discuss your role

The key to defining your relationship with your spouse’s doctor is sitting down with your spouse and talking openly about it. Let the person with asthma tell you what kind of support he or she needs most from you. The NIH offers some general suggestions for the caregiver’s role in the patient-doctor partnership. They may not reflect your spouse’s ideas (or yours), but they are a good starting point for your discussion. Ask your spouse whether he or she would like you to do any of the following:

• Help make up a list of questions for the doctor
• Go with you to your appointments
• Stay in the waiting room
• Join you in the exam room
• Take notes when the doctor answers questions
• Remind him or her of a forgotten question or concern
• Ask the doctor’s staff for more information on a particular topic

Along with your role during office visits, talk with your spouse about your level of involvement in day-to-day home health management. Some topics you may want to talk about are monitoring (measuring and recording your partner’s peak flow, for instance) and medication. If your spouse wants to include you in daily asthma management, the doctor needs to know that.

Ask your spouse to talk to the doctor

A doctor’s partnership is normally with the person being treated, unless the patient is unable to cope with health care demands. Your spouse is the person to make your role as caregiver clear to the health care provider. The physician will follow your spouse’s lead. Your companion might say, “My husband is going to be helping me with the nebulizer. He needs to be shown how to use it, too,” or, “My wife is going to help me keep track of my peak flow. She needs to be here when we talk about how to keep the records.”

Defining your role as a caregiver may take time, and your role may change over time. Keep communication with your spouse open. As long as the two of you are clear about the part you play in asthma management, you’ll be able to convey that role clearly to your spouse’s doctor.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 12th, 2007 at 10:49 am and is filed under Caregivers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.