Ethical Issues: Caring for the Caregiver

Abstract

One of the important details we tend to overlook when taking care of patients with debilitating or life-threatening disease is the welfare of those family members taking care of the patient at home. The burden of providing informal care to patients who are debilitated or dying can be overwhelming, but caregiver burden has historically been underemphasized and is often unrecognized by health care providers who traditionally are more focused on the needs of the patient than the caregiver.