|
|
|
Stage Three, section 2: Protecting Your Care ReceiverYour job is to provide a healthy, safe, and loving environment for your care recipient, not to provide all the care yourself. This section of the Caregiver Handbook includes suggestions to improve the quality of life for your care receiver and for you as well. Help With Personal CareGet help with personal care. Be realistic about how much you can handle. Hands-on personal care such as toileting and bathing is difficult not only physically, but also emotionally. Having home health aides provide part of this care can make a huge difference. Find out whether your care receiver's insurance will cover home health or personal care, what type of service would be provided, what the eligibility requirements are, and how often and how long service would be available. For information about how to get help with personal care, see Stage Two, section 5. To preserve your care receiver's dignity and privacy while being showered or bathed, consider products such as Honor Guard, invented by a Brooksville, Florida woman who was a caregiver for her mother. Find these on the Personal Care Wear web site, www.personalcarewear.com. These undergarments provide visual coverage while allowing access to all parts of the body for washing without embarrassment. A disposable version is also available. Not having to remove all clothing may overcome objections by your care receiver to taking a shower, and it may add to your comfort level whether using outside help or bathing your care receiver yourself to know that you are preserving as much dignity as possible. Home ModificationsThe Complete Guide to Alzheimer's Proofing Your Home by Mark L. Warner lists products and manufacturers that may be of use to caregivers of persons with other disabilities as well. Home adaptations to provide solutions to activities of daily living problems as well as behavior problems are described. Some changes are inexpensive. For more information, see the "Caregiver Books and Videos" section. Consider minor home modifications to increase safety and improve accessibility. Visit the Home Modifications section of a Canadian web site called How To Care, www.howtocare.com. This web site discusses activities of daily living (ADL) risk factors and how they can be addressed through minor changes in the home environment. The site also lists home adaptations to help with various Alzheimer's behaviors. Help For Vision LossSeek help for vision loss, a problem that affects many older adults. One of the main causes of blindness in older persons is macular degeneration, which destroys central vision needed to do tasks such as driving and reading. See "What Is Low Vision?" in the More Resources and Tips section. Visit the National Eye Institute web site, www.nei.nih.gov and Lighthouse International's web site, www.lighthouse.org. If your care receiver has physical impairments that make it impossible to read, he or she might enjoy the WUSF Radio Reading Service, offered throughout Pinellas and surrounding counties of Florida. Your care receiver's home would be provided with a special receiver at no cost. Volunteers read the St. Petersburg Times, Tampa Tribune, USA Today, and other interesting material. Call 813-974-4193 for more information. Public radio stations in other parts of the country may have similar programs. The Pinellas Public Library Cooperative offers the Pinellas Talking Book Library to support reading for individuals with vision problems. Call them at 727-441-8408 for more information. You can also visit the web site at www.pplc.us. According to their web site the Pinellas Talking Book Library is "...part of a nationwide network of cooperating libraries serving people who have difficulty using or reading regular print. Books and magazines in audio formats and Braille, plus compatible playback equipment from the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS), Library of Congress, are loaned free of charge. All materials are sent to clients and returned to the library via postage-free mail. The PTBL collection has thousands of recreational reading titles to choose from in fiction and non-fiction, pre-school to adult." Help For Swallowing, Taste, Smell, and Eating ProblemsLearn strategies for dealing with swallowing, taste, smell, and eating problems. Speech therapists evaluate and assist with swallowing problems. Visit the How to Care web site, www.howtocare.com, and select "Eating/Nutrition/Diets" for a discussion of medical conditions and medications that affect taste and smell, conditions that affect nutrition, signs of chewing and swallowing problems (a condition called Dysphagia), and suggestions for improving nutritional intake. A book that discusses swallowing problems that sometimes accompany strokes is Managing Stroke, A Guide to Living Well After Stroke, edited by Paul R. Rao, Ph.D., Mark N. Ozer, M.D., and John E. Toerge, D.O. Another is Living With Stroke: A Guide for Families by Richard C. Senellick, MD, Peter W. Rossi, MD, and Karla Dougherty. This second book is published by Heath South Press and used by Heath South in working with families of stroke survivors. See Caregiver Books and Videos. People who have difficulty swallowing may have a feeding tube inserted by their health care provider. Instructions for using the feeding tube and tips for caring for the tube site can be found in the "Practical Caregiving Tips" section of The Hospice of the Florida Suncoast web site, www.thehospice.org. There are eating tips for people who have Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), also. Guarding Against DehydrationRecognize and prevent dehydration. Older people may not realize they are dehydrated because the ability to detect thirst diminishes with age. If a person gets less than six cups of liquid daily (drinking eight cups is recommended) or excretes too much urine, dehydration can occur. Being sick and taking certain medications can contribute to dehydration. Having problems swallowing or drinking from a glass can contribute, also. Symptoms of dehydration include the following:
In severe cases, there may be swollen tongue, delirium, kidney failure, and death. To help prevent dehydration in your care receiver, offer plain or filtered water plus beverages and foods that are high in water content:
Coffee and soft drinks with caffeine contribute to dehydration. Avoid them if possible and do not count in the total glasses of water and liquid for the day. Caffeine-free teas including most herb teas sold at grocery stores can be used, but do not use unusual herb teas that may act like drugs. If your care receiver chooses to self treat with herbs, make certain that the pharmacist and doctor know in order to rule out harmful interactions between any herbs, prescriptions, and over-the-counter drugs. Preserving CommunicationPreserve communication even if it has to take new forms. Communication with your care receiver continues to be important even if he or she has trouble hearing or speaking or no longer recognizes you. Here are several suggestions:
Assistive DevicesAssistive devices can improve your care receiver's quality of life and independence, and some can protect your back when helping your care receiver transfer from bed to chair to standing position. Assistive devices range from simple eating utensils with wrapped handholds to fancy computer software, electric scooters, and much more. An occupational therapist can provide advice. A nurse, pharmacist, or doctor may be helpful, also. Find out whether Medicare or other insurance covers an item and whether a doctor's prescription is needed. Low-tech and inexpensive items such as one-handed kitchen tools for stroke survivors could make your life easier. Call ABLEDATA toll-free at 1-800-227-0216 for information about assistive devices and what companies manufacture them. ABLEDATA, www.abledata.com, is funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Another web site with assistive device information is Network of Care, www.networkofcare.org. This site, by the California Department of Aging, provides information specific to each California county. A resource library and assistive device section provide help for caregivers anywhere. Listed below are several more web sites with assistive device information. See the "Caregiver Web Sites" section for more information about these sites:
Remember that any kind of tool that helps make a job easier for you or your care receiver is an assistive device worth considering for safety and convenience. An example is an electric shaver, which many people find less likely to nick than a non-electric razor. If the electric shaver in your household is several decades old, you may want to invest in one of the recent designs for sensitive skin. Help For IncontinenceIf incontinence of bladder or bowel is a problem, report to your care receiver?s doctor for diagnosis and get ideas for dealing with these from doctor, nurse, or pharmacist. Many causes of incontinence respond to treatment, and sometimes simple changes can be effective:
ABLEDATA, 1-800-227-0216 or www.abledata.com, and many of the other web sites that have information about assistive devices, also include incontinence products such as adult undergarments. See Caregiver Web Sites in this Handbook. For discounts, visit Caregivers Marketplace at www.caregiversmarketplace.com. Managing MedicationsUnless insurance or a program such as Medicaid Waiver provides a nurse to manage medications or your care receiver can afford to pay for a nurse, this responsibility will probably fall on you as caregiver. Nurse's aides are not allowed to manage medications. The Home Care Companion Series video, How to Manage Medications, is very thorough. There are demonstrations of proper use of inhalers, eye drops, and medication dispensers with alarms. Order from www.homecarecompanion.com or find in the library system in Pinellas County, Florida. How to Manage Medications offers excellent suggestions for preventing dangerous medication mistakes:
The Caregiver's Support Kit, available free to caregivers by calling the National Caregivers Foundation at 1-800-930-1357, recommends memorizing the six medication :rights." Make sure that:
|
