One in three Dutch people combines work or study with caring for a loved one and due to the aging population, it is expected that the number of informal caregivers will only increase. To support informal caregivers, care organization Impuls works with respite volunteers in the municipality of Aa en Hunze. They help overburdened informal caregivers by spending time with the person they care for.
Jantien Poelman from Gieten is one of the five million people in the Netherlands who provide informal care. Her husband Bert has become in need of help due to leukemia and a brain haemorrhage and Jantien has been helping him with everything for fourteen years. Cooking food, doing the laundry, taking her to the toilet, calling the doctor: Jantien does it all with love.
Bert’s care continues 24 hours a day. And although she also receives help from home care and a cleaner, it is sometimes quite difficult. The moments when Jantien wants to do something for herself are especially difficult for her. “You have to have a lot of patience, I have difficulty with that. You can’t just go outside. Put on your shoes, put on your coat, go to the toilet. Everything just takes a long time.”
Jantien finds it most difficult to leave home. To the church in Gieterveen, for example, where she helps organize events. Or to evenings organized by the Women of Now in her hometown, which she really needs. “Then I just feel guilty. That I’m having a nice evening, that I’m having fun. But Bert is then home alone,” says Jantien.
The couple found a solution in volunteer Evelyne Mulder-Lagarrigue, who was linked to them by healthcare organization Impuls. For five years, the French-born woman visited them one day every two weeks for two hours. “At first Bert didn’t want that at all,” says Evelyne. “But we did it for Jantien. And it went quite well.”
As soon as Evelyne was in the house, Jantien could go out for a while. “I then go out with a light heart. Because then there is someone with him,” says Jantien. In the meantime, Bert took a walk in the neighborhood with Evelyne. They built a bond around their shared love for France, where Bert used to regularly go on holiday. “Then we look together at an old map of France on which Jantien and Bert have recorded all their travels,” says Evelyne.
See below how Evelyne lends a helping hand to the Poelmans