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• (Comment from original source - Retriever) on Jan 27, 12 06:27PM
  Nice shot of the gulls! I got some rather similar ocean reflections with ducks the other day here. Will post when I reopen the blog (temporarily closed it, am reformatting).
  
  Another aspect of the costs of brain disorders is the cost to family members and/or non-related caregiving friends/lovers/New Age family substitutes. In numerous families,the sufferer's costs are all too apparent (days lost from work, expensive meds, etc.) But people seldom bother to quantify the jobs lost by relatives who cannot stay employed when on call for psychiatric or other medical or social emergencies of the identified patient, or disabled person. Or the cost to the caregivers' physical and mental health. Or the costs to a family of having to make a house safe or live in a different kind of place because of the person who is afflicted. Or the costs to caregivers in terms of social isolation, stigma, stress, foregone work promotions or pursuing outsides relationships because they are burned out being caregivers. No matter how much they love the person.
  
  Back when the NHS in GB used to spend more on elderly people and helping care for people in their homes, I remember they paid for helpers to assist my elderly father who was caring for my disabled mother (brain injury from a fall, quadraplegic, and other stuff). One element of their assistance was respite every year, when the government would pay for him to take a REAL vacation (ie: somewhere out of the country) for a week or two to get some rest and a fresh perspective and a holiday after being on call 24/7. From England you can get lots of cheap package tours, so it wasn't that expensive. But it definitely helped keep many caregiving relatives from collapsing under the strain. Their lives had value too. But preventing illness in them did cost something. The NHS did it becasue it would have cost them more had the caregiver collapsed and they had to put two old people in the hospital...
• (Comment from original source - Brain Posts) on Feb 12, 12 10:29AM
  Retriever:
  
  Thanks so much for your comment. I agree these types of analyses often fail to be able to quantify this caregiver cost--both emotional and economic.
  
  I think the days of government covering 24/7 for respite care are likely over for the time being. This is obviously an opportunity for non-profit groups to step in and make a difference.
  
  Bill