Caregivers were surprised and relieved to learn that if they are “burnt out”, there are services of a nurse available who can help out and relieve them for a night.

Te Marae Ora Senior Mental Health nurse, Ana Paniani in her presentation at Te Vaerua Community Rehabilitation Services Inc workshop on Tuesday said that caregivers can call Dr Rangiau Fariu, who can assess the situation organise a nurse, “to give you a break”.

“We have an on call team during the week and a person on standby on weekends, we are trying to help out and reach out to our people,” said Paniani.

Paniani encouraged caregivers to also get regular health check-ups as the need for caregivers are expected to continue to grow with the increases in the population in the older adult population.

Te Vaerua’s two day workshop to train people in basic caregiving skills to care for people with long tern illnesses and disabilities, started on Monday.  

Participants were taken through and shown correct practical techniques on how to move patients from a chair to a standing position, how to move a patient on a bed, the importance of a neat with no crinkle sheets, simple exercises and other relevant manoeuvres in order to make their lives a bit easier. Due to the many enquiries into the course, Te Vaerua will conduct another training workshop in the evenings to cater for caregivers who have fulltime day jobs, sometime next month.