Your Caregiver Role
A caregiver has many important roles, such as:
- Getting involved with the healthcare team
- Giving emotional support
Below, you will find some helpful tips for caregivers.
Helping with the healthcare team
One of your main roles may be to help work with the healthcare team. You can help by:
- Going to doctor appointments with your loved one. Take notes and collect any educational materials that are available
- Gathering information for your loved one about NHL and treatment options
- Organizing all of the information that you collect into a binder
- Creating a list of questions for the healthcare team. For example, ask about treatment options, side effects, procedures, and test results
- Asking about talking with NHL patients who are willing to share their experiences
- Helping with insurance information
Supporting your loved one
After receiving a diagnosis of cancer, it is important to understand what your loved one is going through. Common emotions include:
- Anxiety
- Fear
- Hopelessness
- Depression
- Anger
Your loved one may have some or all of these feelings. And each person will handle them differently.
So what can you do? You can help just by being there. Many patients ask a friend or loved one to go along on doctor visits. It can be useful to have someone else there to help listen and ask questions. Caregivers can help by keeping track of questions, taking notes, providing insurance information, and helping follow the doctor's instructions at home.
On the next page, we'll talk about how you can help support your loved one emotionally.
