Our care giving dilemma derives many of its frustrations and heartaches from our parents’ and society’s centuries-old expectations that care giving for the elderly “is the children’s job.” This assumption is still the status quo even though you have no medical or gerontological training. It assumes that you will know the following:
-when, how and how much to intervene
-how to manage insurance benefits
-how to evaluate a nursing home
-how to cope Alzheimer’s disease
-how to resolve a host of other new and life altering care giving dilemmas.
1. Between 2001-2006: an average of 129 Americans 65 and older were treated in emergency departments each day for injuries from falls involving walkers and canes.
2. Fractures are the most common fall injury associated with walkers and canes.
3. People are seven times more likely to be injured in a fall with a walker verses a cane.
4. More than half of fall injuries associated with walkers and canes happen at home.
The safety issues surrounding mobility aids have received little attention. Healthcare providers, fall prevention programs and health officials too often assume that there are no risks associated with mobility products like walkers, canes, grab bars, and bed assists etc. This has helped create a problem that is finally getting some attention. Too often the cheap price outweighs how effective or safe it is with little focus on unintended consequences like fall injuries.
Most elder-caregivers know the drill: without orientation, training, or significant assistance, “you are expected to know how, when, and how much to intervene, how to manage medications, how to evaluate a nursing home, how to cope with Alzheimer’s Disease, and how to resolve a host of other new and life altering caregiving dilemmas.”
One of the hardest tasks many caregivers face comes at the beginning of the care giving cycle: knowing whether or not to intervene, how to go about it, and which responsibilities should you take over?.
Many products don’t perform according to the marketing materials and/or the intended use is narrow, thus virtually ineffective. This is one reason products are inappropriately chosen and how safety issues are created. Before a professional recommends a product they should be educated so they can help educate others especially the user.
Services are out there, from counseling to home health care professionals to adult day cares. If you can release some of the burden, your relationship with your charges will improve, and everybody will be happier in the long run.
Resource Author Francisco Rodriguez Higueras
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