As relatives of the affected individual, you can opt to provide assistance to your patient by hiring a caregiver to come to your home and provide support services to him or her. Caregivers offer services such as laundry cleaning, bathing a patient, dressing them and providing meals to them. You can also rely on the services of local authority assistance such as meals on wheels, library and laundry services. Many relatives preferred to take their loved to care homes where professional care can be provided by the skilled caregivers employed there.
One basic assisted support service that you can help your patient with is feeding and provision of meals. Dementia can affect a patient in such a way that they are unable to concentrate on having meals or even recognizing meals brought to them. They also loose coordination and may fail to use a fork, spoon or knife. They may also fail to chew and swallow food which is very dangerous to their health. It is your duty to research for ways and foods to use on the patient.
As the disease progresses, a patient coordination may drop to a point where even dressing becomes difficult. You can help them with dressing by ensuring they wear warm or cool clothes depending on the weather. When helping the patients to shop for new clothing, guide them to choose clothes that are easier to wear and manage.
Washing and bathing is also a support service that will be required by your patient. However, bathing a patient is always a difficult task considering that many adults receive bathing as a private task. It can be difficult for you as a caregiver too especially if this is your first time. Approach the task with an open mind and get the patient to trust you until they are comfortable with you washing them
Patients also need to be moved, lifted and made to sit. There are many circumstances when you will need to handle them physically such as when getting them out of bed, sitting them down and taking them for walks.
A patient may also face mobility problems and require a wheelchair. Buy them a wheelchair that is friendly to their use as well as yours. Such, for example, is a wheel chair that can be fold-able for easy carrying in your car.
Dementia makes the patient lose balance, ability to react quickly and also impairs their judgment. This is a great risk to their life. It is important to have a system that monitors their movement to prevent them from wandering into unsafe areas.
About the Author:
No comments:
Post a Comment