homecare dublin
Home Care: Live at Peace with Ourselves
Friday, April 24th, 2009 | home care | No Comments
A man who is constantly analyzing his physical state is called a hypochondriac. What shall we call the man who is constantly analyzing his moral state? As the hypochondriac loses all sense of health in holding the impression of disease, so the other gradually loses the sense of wholesome relation to himself and to others.
If a man obeyed the laws of health as a matter of course, and turned back every time Nature convicted him of disobedience, he would never feel the need of self-analysis so far as his physical state was concerned. Just so far as a man obeys higher laws as a matter of course, and uses every mistake to enable him to know the laws better, is morbid introspection out of the question with him.
“Man, know thyself!” but, being sure of the desire to know thyself, do not be impatient at slow progress; pay little attention to the process, and forget thyself, except when remembering is necessary to a better forgetting.
To live at real peace with ourselves, we must surely let every little evil imp of selfishness show himself, and not have any skulking around corners. Recognize him for his full worthless-ness, call him by his right name, and move off. Having called him by his right name, our severity with ourselves for harboring him is unnecessary. To be gentle with ourselves is quite as important as to be gentle with others. Great nervous suffering is caused by this over-severity to one’s self, and freedom is never accomplished by that means. Many of us are not severe enough, but very many are too severe. One mistake is quite as bad as the other, and as disastrous in its effects.
If we would regard our own state less, or careless whether we were happy or unhappy, our freedom from self would be gained more rapidly.
As a man intensely interested in some special work does not notice the weather, so we, if we once get hold of the immense interest there may be in living, are not moved to any depth by changes in the clouds of our personal state. We take our moods as a matter of course, and look beyond to interests that are greater. Self may be a great burden if we allow it. It is only a clear window through which we see and are seen, if we are free. And the repose of such freedom must be beyond our conception until we have found it. To be absolutely certain that we know ourselves at any time is one great impediment to reaching such rest. Every bit of self-knowledge gained makes us more doubtful as to knowledge to come.
It would surprise most of us to see how really unimportant we are. As a part of the universe, our importance increases just in proportion to the laws that work through us; but this self-importance is lost to us entirely in our greater recognition of the laws. As we gain in the sensitive recognition of universal laws, every petty bit of self-contraction disappears as darkness before the rising of the sun.
Home Care: Tolerance as the Way to Heal
Friday, April 17th, 2009 | home care | No Comments
WHEN we are tolerant as a matter of course, the nervous system is relieved of almost the worst form of persistent irritation it could have.
The freedom of tolerance can only be appreciated by those who have known the suffering of intolerance and gained relief.
A certain perspective is necessary to a recognition of the full absurdity of intolerance. One of the greatest absurdities of it is evident when we are annoyed and caused intense suffering by our intolerance of others, and, as a consequence, blame others for the fatigue or illness which follows. However mistaken or blind other people may be in their habits or their ideas, it is entirely our fault if we are annoyed by them. The slightest blame given to another in such a case, on account of our suffering, is quite out of place.
Our intolerance is often unconscious. It is disguised under one form of annoyance or another, but when looked full in the face, it can only be recognized as intolerance.
Intolerance is an unwillingness that others should live in their own way, believe as they prefer to, hold personal habits which they enjoy or are unconscious of, or interfere in any degree with our ways, beliefs, or habits.
Surely you can see no good from the irritation of unwillingness; there can be no real gain from it, and there is every reason for giving it up. A clear realization of the necessity for willingness, both for our own comfort and for that of others, helps us to its repetition in words. The words said with sincere purpose, help us to the feeling, and so we come steadily into clearer light.
Let us then work with all possible rapidity to relax from contractions of unwillingness, and become tolerant as a matter of course.
The same willingness that is practised in relation to persons will be found equally effective in relation to the circumstances of life, from the losing of a train to matters far greater and more important. There is as much intolerance to be dropped in our relations to various happenings as in our relations to persons; and the relief to our nerves is just as great, perhaps even greater.
It seems to be clear that heretofore we have not realized either the relief or the strength of an entire willingness that people and things should progress in their own way. How can we ever gain freedom whilst we are entangled in the contractions of intolerance?
Freedom and a healthy nervous system are synonymous; we cannot have one without the other.
Senior Home Care: How Important Is Your Life?
Monday, April 6th, 2009 | home care | No Comments
One’s own life is important; one’s own family and friends are important, very, when taken in their true proportion. One should surely be able to look upon one’s own brothers and sisters as if they were the brothers and sisters of another, and to regard the brothers and sisters of another as one’s own. Singularly, too, real appreciation of and sympathy with one’s own grows with this broader sense of relationship. In no way is this sense shown more clearly than by a mother who has the breadth and the strength to look upon her own children as if they belonged to some one else, and upon the children of others as if they belonged to her. But the triviality of magnifying one’s own out of all proportion has not yet been recognized by many.
So every trivial happening in our own lives or the lives of those connected with us is exaggerated, and we keep ourselves and others in a chronic state of contraction accordingly.
Think of the many trifles which, by being magnified and kept in the foreground, obstruct the way to all possible sight or appreciation of things that really hold a more important place. The cook, the waitress, various other annoyances of housekeeping; a gown that does not suit, the annoyances of travel, whether we said the right thing to so-and-so, whether so-and-so likes us or does not like us,–indeed, there is an immense army of trivial imps, and the breadth of capacity for entertaining these imps is so large in some of us as to be truly encouraging; for if the domain were once deserted by the imps, there remains the breadth, which must have the same capacity for holding something better.
Unfortunately, a long occupancy by these miserable little offenders means eventually the saddest sort of contraction. What a picture for a new Gulliver!–a human being overwhelmed by the imps of triviality, and bound fast to the ground by manifold windings of their cobweb-sized thread.
This exaggeration of trifles is one form of nervous disease. It would be exceedingly interesting and profitable to study the various phases of nervous disease as exaggerated expressions of perverted character. They can be traced directly and easily in many cases. If a woman fusses about trivialities, she fusses more when she is tired. The more fatigue, the more fussing; and with a persistent tendency to fatigue and fussing it does not take long to work up or down to nervous prostration. From this form of nervous excitement one never really recovers, except by a hearty acknowledgment of the trivialities as trivialities, when, with growing health, there is a growing sense of true proportion.
Senior Care: Values and Traditions of Grand Parents
Monday, February 16th, 2009 | home care | No Comments
Many older adults have interests other than family. They work, play golf and other sports, have active social lives and hobbies, and so on. So, indeed, what’s in grandparenting for them?
It depends on how much value a grandparent-and a parent places on family ties and the need for and the flow of intergenerational communications. Where family has meaning, interacting with a far away grandchild adds substance to a ‘value’. Then, as the grandparent ages, communicating with the distant grandchild retains its strength as a positive force, and enriches the remaining years. It reduces loneliness, and is an antidote for apathy and depression. Entering grandparenting with tolerance, constancy, and sincerity adds pleasures to a person’s life. In storytelling, grandparenting invites a call from a distant grandchild to ‘Send me another story,’ or better yet, ‘I’ve got an idea for a story. Let me tell you about it.’
The grandchild chose the grandparent over television and the many other forms of professionally polished commercial entertainment that thrusts forward for his or her attention. In so choosing, the youngster notifies the grandparents through his/her appeal that they, the grandparents, are wanted and needed. It’s Grandchild reaching out and inviting Grandma and Grandpa into his or her world-with affection.
In single-parent families and in families in which both parents work away from home, there might not be as many opportunities to pass along traditions, awareness, and values. Be that as it may, throughout history the family and tribal elders passed their knowledge and codes of conduct on to those who, as part of the natural process, carry the torches into the future. This responsibility to family and community is in the substance of existence.
Senior Care: Start a Dialogue with Your Grand Children
Monday, February 9th, 2009 | home care | No Comments
If you can think a story, and if you can write a letter or express your thoughts orally or visually, then you can combine them into a message to a grandchild. The more often you do it, the easier it becomes. If the mechanics of writing or drawing is the problem, then audiotape. The point is to interact and communicate with a grandchild so that the youngster knows of your caring, and that caring is normal. Grandchild will readily grasp that Grandma or Grandpa wants to share, and that sharing is fine.
The type of communication most desired by my grandchildren until their fifth or sixth years, and under the circumstances of the distance between us, was the letter-story. The written stories evolved out of our infrequent family get-togethers. Occasionally, an idea for a story called for follow- up negotiations over the telephone to clarify plots, scenes, and characters. My grandchildren liked the stories, and both they and I enjoyed the discussions that preceded the writing. The give-and-take stimulated our imaginations and creativity, and often provided me with opportunities to pass along family history.
Today’s youngsters know more about the world than children of previous generations, one of the many benefits of our expanding telecommunication capabilities and greater education and travel opportunities. Youngsters get their view of the world from what they see, hear, and learn from and about their families.
Letter stories, anecdotes and lore give grandchildren a better view of their grandparents, and about what older adults believe. The process, if positive oriented, contributes toward the grandchild’s maturity, and offers them encouragement, values, models, and incentives.
There are tens of thousands of homes across the land where treasured possessions, tangible and otherwise, were created or acquired by the occupants or their forebears. You have them in your home as I do in mine. In time, those possessions: properties and artifacts, along with their histories, will move along to your children and grandchildren. In every culture, ‘grandpa and grandma stories’, along with ‘mom and dad stories,’ are part of that inheritance.
When youngsters know that Grandpa or Grandma wrote a story expressly for them, that more than qualifies the story for the special collection of treasures to be shared with close friends, presented at school as a show-and-tell, and eventually absorbed into the treasured memorabilia of childhood.
Grandchild and grandparent know they enjoy being together, and storytelling is part of the fun; also, grandchildren know that grandmas and grandpas usually have fascinating memories of their childhood and about what happened to the family over the years. Grandchildren want to enter this little bit of grandma and grandpa’s world. Perceptive grandparents see the world through a grandchild’s imagination. Using the anticipation generated by a familiar opening phrase or sentence to set the stage works well for both storyteller and listener.
Grandparent-grandchild interaction is more than a custom; it is a deep and powerful bond. By its very nature, the alliance is biological and cultural, and molded by trial-and-error through the hazards of millennia. It is an alliance not to be treated casually; it demands nourishment, and storytelling by a family’s elders is an essential ingredient.
Senior Care: What Causes Insomnia
Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 | home care | No Comments
It is the lower, selfish will that often keeps us awake by causing interior disturbances.
An actor may have a difficult part to play, and feel that a great deal depends upon his success. He stays awake with anxiety, and this anxiety is nothing but resistance to the possibility of failure. The first thing for him to do is to teach himself to be willing to fail. If he becomes willing to fail, then all his anxiety will go, and he will be able to sleep and get the rest and new life which he needs in order to play the part well. If he is willing to fail, then all the nervous force which before was being wasted in anxiety is set free for use in the exercise of his art.
Looking forward to what is going to happen on the next day, or within a few days, may cause so much anxiety as to keep us awake; but if we have a good, clear sense of the futility of resistance, whether our expected success or failure depends on ourselves or on others, we can compel ourselves to a quiet willingness which will make our brains quiet and receptive to restful sleep, and so enable us to wake with new power for whatever task or pleasure may lie before us.
Of course we are often kept awake by the sense of having done wrong. In such cases the first thing to do is to make a free acknowledgment to ourselves of the wrong we have done, and then to make up our minds to do the right thing at once. That, if the wrong done is not too serious, will put us to sleep; and if the next day we go about our work remembering the lesson we have learned, we probably will have little trouble in sleeping.
Senior Care: How Can We Be Free Despite All Those Barriers?
Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 | home care | No Comments
INTERIOR freedom rests upon the principle of non-resistance to all the things which seem evil or painful to our natural love of self. But non-resistance alone can accomplish nothing good unless, behind it, there is a strong love for righteousness and truth. By refusing to resist the ill will of others, or the stress of circumstances, for the sake of greater usefulness and a clearer point of view, we deepen our conviction of righteousness as the fundamental law of fife, and broaden our horizon so as to appreciate varying and opposite points of view.
The only non-resistance that brings this power is the kind which yields mere personal and selfish considerations for the sake of principles. Selfish and weak yielding must always do harm. Unselfish yielding, on the other hand, strengthens the will and increases strength of purpose as the petty obstacles of mere self-love are removed. Concentration alone cannot long remain wholesome, for it needs the light of growing self-knowledge to prevent its becoming self-centred.
Yielding alone is of no avail, for in itself it has no constructive power. But if we try to look at ourselves as we really are, we shall find great strength in yielding where only our small and private interests are concerned, and concentrating upon living the broad principles of righteousness which must directly or indirectly affect all those with whom we come into contact.
Home Care Ireland: Secrets of a Successful Communication
Saturday, December 20th, 2008 | home care | No Comments
When you want to look after an elderly person, you need to be able to understand them fully and to be able to talk to them in a way that suits them best, so that they understand what you want to tell them. Therefore, all carers should complete FETAC Level 5 Course in Practical Home Care Skills, which, according to The Further Education and Training Awards Council (FETAC), provides the following outcomes in the area of communication and listening skills. Learners shoud be able to:
- Understand how people communicate e.g. verbal and non-verbal communication
- Outline the key skills necessary for effective communication by practicing these in a learning environment for e.g. retrieving information, using gestures and relating information to different client groups
- Demonstrate active listening skills by practicing simulated situations to ensure that learners have a full understanding of how to communicate verbally and non-verbally
- Explain that there are different ways in which communication can be difficult for different client groups. These difficulties include physical and mental impairments and also include challenges from an environment and/or family situations where people are being cared for
- Identify aids to communication in a care setting
- Demonstrate effective and appropriate communication with the person being cared for, their family and the multi-disciplinary team caring for the person and their family
- Discuss possible ways of handling minor complaints, preventing and reporting accidents to the relevant person in their working environment whether verbally or in writing
Here at Sandra Cooney’s Home Care Dublin, we make sure all our carers complete the course.
How Carers Help with Bathing
Friday, December 12th, 2008 | home care | No Comments
One of our client, let’s call her Christie, is a totally independent client who needs help just with bathing.
So my task today was to help her with bath. I knocked on Christie’s door and announced that it was time of her bath.
Firstly I went to prepare the place, so I filled the bath with water and I got the mop ready so that I could mop the floor during bath, to make sure that the floor is always clean. I also checked the battery of the hoist.
Then I called Christie who knew already that it was the time to have a bath. She was already prepared, she always prepares for the bath herself and I just check that she doesn’t forget anything.
Then I went with Christie to the bathroom. Christie took her clothes off on her own. In the meantime I poured some of her soap into the water and I prepared her face towels. I helped her to sit in the hoist and I asked her whether the water was the right temperature. I helped Christie to wash the parts of her body she couldn’t reach herself.
After the bath I helped her to dry herself and I put some cream where necessary. I helped her with getting dressed.
All the time I was talking to Christie about her needs and requirements about the bath and we also maintained an informal friendly talk.
Christie then went back to her room on her own while I stayed in the bathroom to clean it. I washed the bath and made sure that the floor and the whole bathroom was ready for the next bath.
Christie is always very nice and friendly and became great friends.
When looking after clients in their homes, we need to understand them - what they like, what their habits are - and we need to be very sensitive to their needs. Physical touch is necessary and it all must be done with great love and understanding. This is why I love working as a carer!
Carer’s Report: Helping an Elderly Person with Breakfast
Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 | home care | No Comments
Sometimes it’s tough to see people who cannot live without somebody else’s help.
My another client, let’s call him James, is an immobile person who needs help with basic everyday tasks. My first task today was to feed him at breakfast. I prepared the food and tested its temperature to ensure it’s not too hot or too cold and I checked with a spoon that it was suitable for him.
Then I entered his room and told him that the breakfast was ready. James was in good mood, he was very talkative that morning and he was looking forward to his breakfast.
As he often coughs out the phlegm, I put on gloves to prevent myself from it. The fact that the food was the right temperature was also confirmed by him eating it normally.
Upon finishing his porridge, James had a cup of tea.
During the breakfast he cooperated very well. I wished him a nice day, then I left the room so that he could rest, and I tidied up the kitchen.
I like James and his great sense of humour. We can spend hours talking about his memories when he used to play football and work as an electrician. He is very humble and yet inside there’s a great treasure which he keeps just for those who are worth it.
And I love listening to his life experiences, and how he looks at life now.
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