Dr. Krina Patel explains why self-care isn’t just helpful, it’s essential for care partners. Dr. Patel discusses how to recognize burnout and shares simple ways to recharge to maintain your own well-being.
Dr. Krina Patel is an Associate Professor in the Department of Lymphoma/Myeloma at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. Dr. Patel is actively involved in research and provides care for patients with multiple myeloma. Click here to learn more about Dr. Patel.
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Transcript
Katherine Banwell:
Dr. Patel, it’s important for care partners to take care of themselves while looking after their loved one. Why is self-compassion essential during this time?
Dr. Krina Patel:
Yeah, I think today especially, every year, I feel like life just gets faster and faster, but burnout is a real big thing in everything we do. So, not just work or school, but when taking care of somebody, because again, sometimes we forget and we put so much time and effort and energy into taking care of somebody else, because we want to make sure everything goes well, you forget to take care of yourself. And again, that can lead to both physical and mental just burnout.
And so, it’s really important that you take time for yourself. And again, this is why having extra help or when patients do end up in the hospital, let’s say because they’re having a fever, I tell my patients’ care partners, “Please go home at night, get rest at home, because at the hospital, people are coming in all the time to do vitals and you just don’t get sleep, and this is where we’re watching. You know, we’re watching 24 hours a day. So, this is the time for you to get time for yourself, especially if that’s happening.
And we want to make sure you get communication. We understand that you want to be there for your loved one, but really getting proper sleep during this time, getting, again, proper nutrition and just sort of a mental outlet is really, really important. And so, when you can use us to help you, if your loved one is in the hospital, do it, even if it’s just for a few hours a day, take time to leave, and we will let you know if something happens.”
Versus if it’s outpatient, on the outpatient side, again, having somebody else that can maybe come on the weekend so that you can take time off, or some of our patients have had somebody come just for a half-day, and then their loved one, their care partner was able to go home and sort of shower at home, take care of the pets and that type of thing and come back. So, whatever you need to do, just making sure you have that backup.
Katherine Banwell:
How can someone recognize the signs of burnout?
Dr. Krina Patel:
Yeah, so, I think the biggest one is just fatigue. If you’re noticing that you’re tired, that can be, again, it could be not enough sleep or other things, but really, fatigue and just depression. I mean, feeling sad about certain things or really anxious sometimes, when people get really, really anxious, that can actually be a sign of burnout as well, and for us, for our CAR T patients, I mean, we have huge resources. We have big teams. We have social workers. We have case managers. We have our CAR T APPs, our CAR T nurses.
And so, our folks are there to actually help figure out if that’s happening, and so, I think the biggest thing you can do is just kind of tuning in and seeing if you’re having symptoms that you usually don’t have, making sure you reach out to us, because we could help figure out ways to make sure you’re doing okay, too.
Katherine Banwell:
Well, we know that seeking care with a mental health professional or joining a support group is really beneficial. What would you say to those who may be hesitant or nervous to take advantage of these resources?
Dr. Krina Patel:
Yeah, I think it’s just like you go to the doctor to go get your cholesterol checked or make sure you have prevention, right? Most of us, we live in a very stressful world day to day. Doesn’t matter if it’s just this situation, but this is an added stress, and I think we need all the help we can get, and this is for everybody involved. This is even including the care team, so, us as providers and physicians. Really having that outlet to talk to other people is important.
I think the myeloma world, we have some of the best patient support groups that are out there, and care partner groups as well. And at times, it can be a little bit daunting. If someone has had a bad experience, for instance, it can actually cause anxiety. So, I tell my patients to take it with a grain of salt in terms of what is being discussed, but I think really important to make sure that whatever institution you’re at, we have lots of resources.
And so, again, for my patients, our social workers are sort of first line so that even when they come for their apheresis appointment or we’re talking about CAR T, we usually just have them start talking to the social worker right away so we can actually give them a lot of resources for these things.
And again, I know it used to be taboo, and for some people, it still is, but for most of us, we think of the entire body, physically and mentally. Even when we talk about steroids for our patients with myeloma, we know that it can cause mental distress. And so, this is something with myeloma patients.
We’re used to saying, “Okay, we need to back off or we need to do something different,” and I think that’s just as important for the care partners, that we have to make sure that their mental health is doing well, too.