It is a well-known fact that a high percentage of the elderly experience mental degradation at some stage during the later years of their lives. It is acknowledged as one of the disadvantages of getting old! However, the majority of people do not know the first thing about mental health illnesses and diseases that can take hold of the elderly mind, although some will have heard various names of afflictions being bandied about. Alzheimer's Disease is one of the most widely recognised, but very little is actually known about it by individuals who have not come into contact with people suffering from it. This article will explain in layman's terms exactly what Alzheimer's is as well as what it can do.
Sometimes when you have a very consuming problem, it can so take over your life that you forget the rest of life's responsibilities and relationships. That is certainly a danger that caregivers are faced with. It is easy to become so wrapped up in the demands of being a good caregiver for your aging parent or loved one that the rest of the world seems to disappear.
This is never a healthy way to take on the challenge of care giving. Not only would it be terrible for your family, job and friends to see you vanish into the task of care giving and never be available for anyone else, its also a bad idea for both you and your elderly parent for you to obsess that much.
As a carer for the elderly, you have to be alert to a senior's wants and needs at all times. Those needs can be in the form of mental stimulation, conversation and catering for likes whilst avoiding dislikes, but they can also appear in the form of physical problems that need to be corrected as soon as humanly possible, if indeed it if possible at all. Pressure sores fall into the latter category. A pressure sore may start off as a simple tear in the skin but, if not treated immediately, can end up as a gaping wound that travels right down to the bone and muscle of an individual. The innocuous nature of the pressure sore's humble beginnings means carers have to be fully alert to any physical imperfections at all times in order to avoid horrendous abnormalities at a later date. This is a quick guide of what to look for in the first instance and how to treat a pressure sore that does develop.
Anyone who has ever been in debt will tell you exactly how stressful and demeaning the situation can be. If you happen to get into debt then it may just consume your entire being if you struggle to make repayments. Debt can badly affect your lifestyle, perspective on life and may in fact cause deterioration in the relationships you have with those you hold dear to you. Imagine hat scenario and put yourself in the place of someone who is in debt. Now put yourself in the shoes of an elderly person who has the same concerns, worries and stresses. Their problem may in fact be ten times worse because of their personal situation. If you do begin to care for an elderly relative who is in that situation then it will also become your problem, regardless of whose name the debt is in. However, you do have options and debts can be sorted out quite quickly when you know how.
As a caregiver, it is difficult to summon up the energy to do what is in the best interests of the senior that you are looking after at times. It can be extremely exhausting because you have undergone enough mental stimulation to last a lifetime in just a few weeks. However, if you can keep elderly people with mental illnesses occupied, then you are half way to ward winning the battle.
Perhaps the hardest task you will ever be faced with is to help one of your parents cope with the loss of her spouse. Naturally, this is going to be a traumatic time for the whole family because as much as mom lost her husband and the father of her children, you have lost your daddy and you have grief yourself. So how do you help your mom and grandma to your kids get through this very difficult transition?
It is a common belief in society that life goes full circle. You are born, live your life and then die, to put it quite morbidly, but in between you go full circle. Seniors often regress back to their childhood as they go further and further into old age because they may need the same amount of care in their final days as they did in their very first ones. As a result, the care you can give them, as caregivers and relatives, is no longer adequate. As they head into their final days, it may well be time to make a choice as to where they will spend them. A hospice is usually a popular option because of the level of specialist care they offer. This is your quick guide to hospices with a brief overview of the information that you may need to make up your mind.
If you are caring for the elderly in any capacity, whether it is as a care assistant in a retirement home or as a primary caregiver in the home of an elderly relative, it can be difficult to know where to start and what to do. If you are new to caring then it can be a very daunting experience because you are literally thrown in at the deep end. You learn or run; it is as simple as that. There are no courses or hard and fast rules that can tell you how to react in certain situations. Every caregiver has to find his or her own footing when caring for the elderly, and then translate that into a level on which you feel comfortable in order to be effective. However, there is one golden rule that you should follow and adopt as your private philosophy – always establish a routine and never underestimate its power!
As we get older, we all become more susceptible to illnesses, diseases and ailments that may render us incapacitated in some way, shape or form. In some cases we may not even recover from them. It is a sad fact, but we will all eventually shake hands with the very thing that is going to kill us. However, that is not to say that all senior illnesses are incurable. In fact, there are very few that are untreatable. If you happen to be a caregiver and look after a senior on a daily basis, then there are various diseases that you may actually come into contact with and learn how to cope with via that individual. It can be difficult watching someone you care about succumb to illness at any age, but with seniors it is inevitable. A little bit of background knowledge can help to prepare you for the worst, so here is a quick guide to senior illnesses:
Looking after the elderly can be a bit like looking after young and curious children – you need eyes in the back of your head and the ability to see through walls! Whether the elderly person that you are caring for is mentally or physically disabled, your primary concern is their safety. However, unfortunately for you, this is very rarely their primary concern. Individuals with dementia or Alzheimer's Disease, for example, do not have a sense of their own mortality at all. They are mentally incapable of thinking through the dangers of any situation and are neither logical nor reasonable with their thoughts. As a result, you must be concerned about their safety enough for you and them at all times.
Caring for an elderly member of your family is a huge responsibility that very few people actually take on today. It is to be commended for so many reasons, especially when you consider just how much caregivers do give up to dedicate themselves to their family. When you do accept the task of looking after an individual family member who is no longer capable of taking care of his or herself, the key element to remember is that you have no idea just how long that commitment will be. It could be months, it could be years, but either way you will be mentally exhausted and close to burnout within a few weeks of beginning your role as primary caregiver.
Few of us think about our own self esteem. But how we feel about ourselves, our work, our relationship to family and the community and our place in the world is the cornerstone not only of your ability to function and be productive in life but of your mental and physical health as well. That is a basic concept of human psychology for everyone and that need for self esteem doesn't go away when you become a senior citizen.
There is something very self absorbed about the caregiver to senior citizen relationship. By that we mean that most if not all of the decisions you make and subjects of concern focus either on the senior citizen and his needs or on the caregiver and the senior citizen and how you will work together to address his needs.
It is small wonder then when we think about what your elderly parent talked about all day, it's usually all about his or her physical or emotional needs. The way the caregiver relationship works naturally encourages the idea that the senior citizens world revolves around the needs and issues of the senior citizen himself.
When you were growing up, your parents were your care givers. They made sure you were safe, well fed, clothed had medical care and that the money was there for the things you needed. But being your caregiver for your mom and dad was about more than just giving you the basics of survival and health.
There is a balance between the jobs of a caregiver and the feelings of a caregiver. If you can detach yourself from the many emotions you feel when you have taken on this hard job, many of the "tasks" are fairly routine. Whether it's doing your mom and dad's laundry or grocery shopping or paying the bills or filling out the Medicare paperwork, much of the "stuff" of being a caregiver is pretty humdrum.
Sometimes, when caring for an elderly relative, it can be hard to know what to do for the best. If you are a caregiver, you are generally and solely responsible for the health of the person under your care, which makes it hard to make decisions that concern their welfare. However, when that person is a member of your family it becomes even harder to deal with. You have known that person inside out for most of your life and so it is easy to remember what sort of person they were before mental or physical disability kicked in. That may actually cloud your judgement. One thing that shouldn't be hard for you to decide upon is their independence. Whether a family member is physically or mentally disabled, you should always try to promote their independence as far as possible.
"Old people need a lot of pills."
That was an observation the grandson of my adult parent observed about his Granddad. And while that may be a bit of a crude way of making that observation, it is certainly a correct observation. The truth is that senior citizens sometimes to find themselves taking a vast array of pills and medications. Sometimes the diversity of medications can become hard to keep track of. That is why so often your aging parent may have a pill dispenser kit which allows him to measure out the drugs for an entire week to try to keep it all straight.
There are some momentous events in the life of a senior citizen. And few can compare in terms of the tremendous change of lifestyle to the moment when your aging parent moves out of their home and into an assisted living facility. It's a very emotional decision. If your mom and dad have been living in the same house for decades, there is a bond with that place that runs very deep. So convincing your elderly parent to move to an apartment or assisted care facility can be difficult.
The generation born between 1950 and 1970 has often been called The Baby Boomer Generation. There have been some variations on that title including The Me Generation, The Vietnam Generation and even for the sake of a certain comedian, The Al Frankin Generation. But the title that is most appropriate to where we are now, as we become caregivers for our children as well as our aging parents is "The Sandwich Generation".
Caring for the elderly, whether complete strangers or those related to you, can be extremely rewarding. The sense of satisfaction can be immense. However, the down side of caring is that it can be extremely frustrating and upsetting for all parties concerned, especially for the carer. Until you have actually been through it yourself you can never fully appreciate exactly how stressful it can be. It can bring out every possible negative emotion in you that you could ever think of and put you on the fast track to burnout. It is a full time occupation because you will find that it is all you ever think about, even when you are elsewhere. Therefore, it is extremely important to learn how to recognise the signs of stress and how to cope with it early on.
