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Care for the Elderly: Ageing with Love
Monday, March 16th, 2009 | home care | No Comments
Recalling that far more assertive and influential time in their lives, the elderly insist on their right to age gracefully, usefully, and so far as they possibly can, their way. Rather than merely riding off into the sunset, older adults choose to brighten the horizons of their minds and lives through continued involvement in family, schools, work place, and community. Most elderly reject the diminution of their abilities and interests, although as they age into the seventh and eighth decades they may be compelled to restrict their direct involvement somewhat. Their capabilities, reduced by time and the tides, are nevertheless firmly based on direct on-the-job experience in managing households, family affairs, and professional and technical careers. With such knowledge and experience the elderly will remain a vital resource.
(From Surviving The Future, by Arnold Toynbee, Oxford University Press, 1971) Man is a social being, and therefore, among all the objects for his love that there are in the universe and beyond it, he ought, I suppose, love his fellow human beings first and foremost. But he should also love all non-human living creatures, animals, and plants as well because they are all akin to man; they too are branches of the great tree of life. This tree has a common root; we do not know where the root comes from, but we do know that we all spring from it. Man should also love inanimate nature, because this, too, is part of the universe which is man’s habitat.
(Our grandchildren) are not responsible for the existing state of the world. The reality is that the middle-aged generation (the parents of the rising generation) brought them into the world and is educating or miseducating them, or just ignoring their educational needs. If the middle-years or older generations are indignant at the rising generation, who is really at fault? Who shirked their responsibilities to their children and grandchildren? And with whom lies the initiative to resolve these inadequacies? In effect, it is up to the older generation to take the initiative to bring about reconciliation between itself and the generations that are to follow them.
Home Care Ireland: Stop Complaining and Start Living!
Friday, March 13th, 2009 | home care | No Comments
How often do we hear others or find ourselves complaining of a fault over and over again! “I know that is a fault of mine, and has been for years. I wish I could get over it.” “I know that is a fault of mine,”–one brain-impression; “it has been for years,”–a dozen or more brain-impressions, according to the number of years; until we have drilled the impression of that fault in, by emphasizing it over and over, to an extent which daily increases the difficulty of dropping it.
So, if we have the habit of unpunctuality, and emphasize it by deploring it, it keeps us always behind time. If we are sharp-tongued, and dwell with remorse on something said in the past, it increases the tendency in the future.
The slavery to nerve habit is a well-known physiological fact; but nerve habit may be strengthened negatively as well as positively. When this is more widely recognized, and the negative practice avoided, much will have been done towards freeing us from our subservience to mistaken brain-impressions.
Let us take an instance: unpunctuality-for example, as that is a common form of repetition. If we really want to rid ourselves of the habit, suppose every time we are late we cease to deplore it; make a vivid mental picture of ourselves as being on time at the next appointment; then, with the how and the when clearly impressed upon our minds, there should be an absolute refusal to imagine ourselves anything but early. Surely that would be quite as effective as a constant repetition of the regret we feel at being late, whether this is repeated aloud to others, or only in our own minds. As we place the two processes side by side, the latter certainly has the advantage, and might be tried, until a better is found.
Of course we must beware of getting an impression of promptness which has no ground in reality. It is quite possible for an individual to be habitually and exasperatingly late, with all the air and innocence of unusual punctuality.
It would strike us as absurd to see a man painting a house the color he did not like, and go on painting it the same color, to show others and himself that which he detested. Is it not equally absurd for any of us, through the constant expression of regret for a fault, to impress the tendency to it more and more upon the brain? It is intensely sad when the consciousness of evil once committed has so impressed a man with a sense of guilt as to make him steadily undervalue himself and his own powers.
Here is a case where one’s own idea of one’s self is seventy-five per cent below par; and a gentle and consistent encouragement in raising that idea is most necessary before par is reached
And par, as I understand it, is simple freedom from any fixed idea of one’s self, either good or bad.
Elderly Care Talk: Living History
Monday, February 23rd, 2009 | home care | No Comments
For many of us, our lives are keyed to significant events, transitions, locales, or something that has importance to ourselves or to our families. For me, the important events and episodes happened to be on a time-line by location: the places where my family resided over the years. I spent the first twenty-five years of my life in the city where I was born and raised. Afterward, a few years in a distant city, then on to another and still another, each invariably distant and different than before.
After I retired, I took the time to make notes on as many important events that I could recall, and keyed each to a geographic location. I gave each episode a title or sketched a brief outline that would stimulate my memory to the place and help me to talk about it. My list began with city A: my preschool and school years (with several sub-headings because those times had been chaotic); the Great Depression, the first job, etc. City B: why I was there; the job; etc. I continued on to the next and the next.
When I finished my initial list of ‘cities’ or ‘countries’ and numbered them I found that I had more than two hundred events, episodes or time periods. I arranged them so that one followed the other as they had occurred or were otherwise linked. That became my outline.
I took the list along when I visited my grandchildren (my daughter had briefed the family beforehand about Grandpa’s list.) Evenings, relaxed at the table after dinner, Grandson or Granddaughter would call out, for example, ‘Grandpa! Number 67!’ I made a big deal out of hauling the list from my back pocket, carefully unfolding it, locating the number and reading the title aloud. Then, on to chin-rubbing, head scratching, ceiling staring, and after enough ‘C’mon, grandpa! Get with it!’ from all directions I went into my act, narrating in words, tone, gestures, and body language the events of oft-told ‘Number 67′, or whatever number they had chosen.
They would listen, spellbound and cut in with comments and questions. To them, it was their family history and often, drama, and they really want to know. Invariably, the story was followed with reminiscences by their Mom and Dad who added variations, details, interpretations from their memories, and spin off comparable events in their lives, often long into the wee hours.
Autobiography became living history-the occasion of the telling, itself, is now an event not to be forgotten-and the finest kind of intergenerational communication.
Home Care: Beware of a Carer with No Sympathy!
Wednesday, February 18th, 2009 | home care | No Comments
A poor man was once brought to the hospital very ill; he had suffered so keenly in the process of getting there that the resulting weakness, together with the intense fright at the idea of being in a hospital, which is so common to many of his class, added to the effects of his disease itself, were too much for him, and he died before he had been in bed fifteen minutes. The nurse in charge looked at him and said, in a cold, steady tone:–
“It was hardly worth while to make up the bed.”
She had hardened herself because she could not endure the suffering of unwholesome sympathy, and yet “must do her work.” No one had taught her the freedom and power of true sympathy. Her finer senses were dulled and atrophied,–she did not know the difference between one human soul and another. She only knew that this was a case of typhoid fever, that a case of pneumonia, and another a case of delirium tremens. They were all one to her, so far as the human beings went. She knew the diagnosis and the care of the physical disease,–and that was all. She did the material work very well, but she must have brought torture to the sensitive mind in many a poor, sick body.
Care for the Elderly: Can You Sleep Peacefully?
Wednesday, February 11th, 2009 | home care | No Comments
When we lie down at night and become conscious that our arms and our legs and our whole bodies are resting heavily upon the bed, we are letting go all the resistance which has been left stored in our muscles from the activities of the day.
A cat, when she lies down, lets go all resistance at once, because she moves with the least possible effort; but there are very few men who do that, and so men go to their rest with more or less resistance stored in their bodies, and they must go through a conscious process of dropping it before they can settle to sleep as a normal child does, without having to think about how it is done. The conscious process, however, brings a quiet, conscious joy in the rest, which opens the mind to soothing influences, and brings a more profound refreshment than is given even to the child–and with the refreshment new power for work.
One word more about outside disturbances before we turn to those interior ones which are by far the most common preventatives of refreshing sleep. The reader will say: “How can I be willing that the noise should go on when I am not willing?” The answer is, “If you can see clearly that if you were willing, the noises would not interfere with your sleep, then you can find the ability within you to make yourself willing.”
It is wonderful to realize the power we gain by compelling and controlling our desires or aversions through the intelligent use of the will, and it is easier to compel ourselves to do right against temptation than to force ourselves to do wrong against a true conviction. Indeed it is most difficult, if not impossible, to force ourselves to do wrong against a strong sense of right.
Behind an our desires, aversions, and inclinations each one of us possesses a capacity for a higher will, the exercise of which, on the side of order and righteousness, brings into being the greatest power in human life. The power of character is always in harmony with the laws of truth and order, and although we must sometimes make a great effort of the will to do right against our inclinations the ease of such effort increases as the power of character increases, and strength of will grows steadily by use, because it receives its life from the eternal will and is finding its way to harmony with that.
Caring for the Elderly: Grandparent’s Role
Monday, February 2nd, 2009 | home care | No Comments
Grandparents generally accept and enjoy the many roles into which they have been cast. One of the many is that they are the grandparents of all their grandchildren, not just of one whom they chose to be their favorite. Favoritism invites disaster.
A young mother of two posed the following dilemma to an Internet discussion group devoted to family relations and child behavior. I altered the text slightly, primarily to protect the writer’s privacy. She wrote:
‘Since the birth of our second child our family has received lots of warm wishes. Yet, often, in offering congratulations, well wishers remarked along the lines ‘You must be happy to have a boy now.’ This confused our older child, a four-year-old girl.
‘Of course, she is a much loved and cherished child and we could not love her any more if she were a boy. And we are very happy to have our new son, but would have loved a second daughter just as much. But the casual remarks about having a son are secondary to my concern about my parents’ relationship with our children.
‘My parents reside within easy driving distance and we are a close-knit family. Rarely a week passes that we and my parents don’t do something together. They are my daughter’s primary baby-sitters and are very generous toward her.
‘However, I am starting to see that there will be a difference, based solely on gender, in my parents’ treatment of both children. When my son was barely a week old, my father said that he was looking forward to taking him fishing. When I remarked that my daughter had a fishing pole and, due to the age difference between her and her brother, would be a more appropriate companion, still no invitation was forthcoming.
‘When my father invited my husband fishing the following week, my father grumbled at the suggestion that they take my daughter along.
‘My son is now two and a half months old, and my father is looking forward to participating with him in Little League, soccer, etc. Again, both my husband and I chimed in that the same activities are also available for girls. Silence.
‘What really disturbs me is that after these rebuffs my daughter sometimes quietly says to me, ‘Mama, I am proud we both are girls.’ I don’t know where she gets this from, but she’ll often repeat it several times and in more of a forlorn tone than an enthusiastic one.’
Home Care Ireland: Practical Home Care Skills
Saturday, January 3rd, 2009 | home care | No Comments
Sometimes it’s easy to understand what you, as a carer for the elderly, should do every day. But maybe there still are certain points that you might forget about. According to The Further Education and Training Awards Council (FETAC), you should be able to show these practical home care skills:
- Understand the importance of dignity, privacy and confidentiality in providing care to vulnerable people
- Respect the right of the person being cared for to autonomy, independence and choice
- Discuss the normal ageing process and the limitations of age related conditions
- Explain how to provide support with nutrition and feeding of the person being cared for
- Recognise the importance of a well-balanced diet for people who need care
- Discuss how important it is to assist the person being cared for in maintaining personal hygiene routines in the care of hair, teeth and personal grooming, bathing and dressing
- Outline how to manage the personal hygiene routines for elimination and continence for a person in their care
- Outline how to manage moving a person safely who has limited mobility with proper moving and handling techniques
- Identify how to make a bed which is occupied and unoccupied with the use of the particular aids for the process
- Explain how pressure areas occur and know what measures to put in place to prevent them
This applies even more when you don’t have a very close relationship with the person you are looking after. While in families, you might find yourself doing all these points almost automatically, when caring after seniors you don’t know, you usually need to put more effort to be able to perform them successfully.
If you find these difficult to deal with or if you would like to discuss any of these issues, give us a call on 1890 500 005 and see how our carers can help you straight away.
Care for the Elderly: New Year Resolutions of a Carer
Thursday, January 1st, 2009 | home care | 1 Comment
So here we go - a new year arrived and maybe we forgot to review the 2008 one, or to set goals for 2009.
Nevermind, what really is important is, whether the change will actually happen.
Here is a tip for this year: just watch and measure, if possible, all that you do and try to overcome yourself the next time. Especially in the caring business, we see how important it is to work on our own personal skills so that we can be better communicators, better helpers, better friends.
Anyway, don’t forget to wish something nice for yourself as well - how about giving yourself a smile every morning?
Wish you good luck and a successful year!
5 Must-Know Safety Tips in Caring for the Elderly
Sunday, December 28th, 2008 | home care | No Comments
Everyone knows that you should not put cables in one’s way because they could stumble and fall easily. This is even more important to remember when your are caring for the elderly. However, there are much more issues you should remember when looking after your elderly Mum or Dad. In this case you become a carer and as such it would be useful to do as is advised to the attendees of the FETAC Practical Home Care Skills Course:
- Identify the different ways that a Carer’s personal standard of hygiene assists in the prevention of infection
- Understand how infection can be transmitted in a care environment
- Prevent cross-infection. This prevention includes the correct and appropriate use of cleaning procedures and the use of protective equipment
- Food should be stored hygienically, safely and free from hazards
- Recognise the importance of fire prevention, accident prevention and learn the different ways that fire and accidents are prevented in the home and caring environment
If you find these difficult to deal with or if you would like to discuss any of these issues, give us a call on 1890 500 005 and see how our carers can help you straight away.
Elderly Care: Spend Christmas with Your Dearest
Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008 | home care | No Comments
How important is it for you to be with your children at Christmas? Sometimes whole families gather together and they celebrate these most fabulous seasons of the year. We all want to spend our Christmas dinner surrounded by those we love - our parents, our kids, grandparents, and sometimes even friends who are not our direct relatives.
Sometimes we are not aware how tough it can be to leave an elderly person on their own at Christmas - so make sure that you invite your family members to spend the evening with you. They will give it back, believe me - their smile and maybe even slightly improved health will let you know that you’ve done something really good.
Wish you a merry Christmas!
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