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Caring for a sick or disabled elderly relative exacts a toll — physical, emotional, financial — on any family member, but being a spousal caregiver brings particular challenges.

“Spouses are older and dealing with their own age-related health limitations,” says Steven H. Zarit, a Pennsylvania State University gerontologist. The tasks they shoulder have grown more demanding: Family caregivers now administer arsenals of medications and undertake procedures, from wound care to dialysis, that were once the province of medical professionals.

Moreover, today’s longer life spans, in which once-fatal conditions such as heart disease have become manageable chronic illnesses, mean that the “sickness” part of “in sickness and in health” can last for many years. Spouses determined to single-handedly honor their vows, says Suzanne Mintz of the National Family Caregivers Association, “are using their old rules to fight a new problem.”

via Spouses Face Hurdles When Caring For Themselves, Ill Loved Ones – Kaiser Health News.