The caf é knows the hard work of the caregiver.

According to a survey conducted by the Family Care and Care Association of the Republic of China, most of the caregivers are between the ages of 41 and 60, and many of them are the "sandwich generation" with high halls and children at the bottom, burning candles at both ends of the workplace and taking care of candles, resulting in more than 50 care tragedies in the past five years. Singer Chen Jianning is always invited at home to compose a song "Guardian is not alone" for caregivers, reminding caregivers to drink a cup of coffee, listen to some music, restore their energy and continue to take care of their work when they are almost out of breath.

Chen Chien-ning said that he had experienced his father's stroke and his grandmother's loss of mind. apart from taking care of him, when he disagreed with his family on the care work, he was easily exhausted, and he could fully understand the pressure of taking care of the job. In addition to composing music for caregivers, he invited singers Pan Yueyun, Sun Xiezhi, Lai Yayan and F.I.R. The orchestra Aqin, Hou Yijun and others will sing in the future at three relay concerts in the north, middle and south, so that fans can hear the needs of caregivers.

Chen Jingning, general secretary of the family, said that with the support of Heku Life Insurance, since September last year, the family has successively set up six care cafes in Shuangbei, Hsinchu, Tainan, Kaohsiung and other places, providing caregivers with two free "breathing coffee" a month. Among the continuously visited caregivers, the average age was 52.7 years, the average daily care time was 13.13 hours, the average number of care years was 9.5 years, and the longest care time was more than 20 years.

Among them, 23% of the people are unmarried, 30% need to work, and more than 80% of the caregivers are women. Chen Jingning analyzes that gender stereotypes give women more responsibility for family care, coupled with the fact that the average salary of women in the workplace is lower than that of men, so women are more likely to give up their jobs when their families need care.

If the caregivers are men, Chen Jingning points out that because of the traditional nurturance education, men will "swallow bitterness" and "men will not cry easily." they will not be used to asking for help, and they will be under a lot of pressure.

Sister Ah Zhu, 60, who bears the burden of taking care of her stroke father and disabled mother, said that more than a decade of care pressure led to bad temper, melancholy, insomnia, emotional breakdown and had to be controlled by medication. In the past three years, under the care of social workers, she learned that the government had provided long-term photo service, but she had applied for foreign nursing assistance.

Sister Ah Chu said that when she learned that there was a caf é, she would check in twice a month to have coffee and chat with other caregivers, because the caregivers could understand each other's feelings and empathize with each other. "the chat is good and comfortable, and I feel like I can live for another 10 years!" Xiao Mei, who has been taking care of her mother for three years, also said that she would specially apply for the long photo respite service, allowing the caretaker to come home for three hours, so that she could have coffee and talk with her friends and maintain a good mood.

Zhang Zhijie, general manager of Heku Life Insurance, said that in an aging society with fewer children, Changzhao is no longer the responsibility and pressure that families can bear alone, but the voice of caregivers has been ignored for a long time. In addition to continuously helping his family raise money, he also set up more caf é s throughout Taiwan and called on caregivers: "No matter how busy you are, you should have a cup of coffee to catch your breath." Information about the caf é can be found on the Internet: http://www.familycare.org.tw.

● solves the myth of family caregivers

X myth 1: to take care of you should be self-sacrifice.

O reasonable idea: allow yourself to rest properly in order to take good care of patients, and if conditions permit, you can maintain the original social activities.

Myth 2: I can't complain, get angry or get depressed when I give my family 100 points of care.

O reasonable idea: only when I am happy can I have a healthy family, otherwise it will seriously affect the mood of the person being taken care of.

Myth 3: only I know him best, and it's best for me to take care of him.

O reasonable idea: caregivers should be generous with assistance. The more support they get, the more they will get twice the result with half the effort.

X myth 4: it is only natural to take care of the family, and there is no contribution to the society.

O reasonable idea: what I do is very important and deserves to be encouraged and affirmed by my family and society.

X myth 5: taking care of is a family matter. You don't have to tell anyone.

O reasonable idea: I should communicate more with people with the same experience so that I can learn more valuable experience.

Source: general Manager

The family always held a "guarding a cup of coffee together" activity to support caregivers. Aqin (from left), Hou Yijun, Pan Yueyun, Lai Yayan, Sun Xiezhi, and Chen Jianning announced the start of the event. Reporter Chen Likai / Photography