Daily care classification for the elderly

Basic life care, health monitoring care, psychological and emotional care, social function maintenance care, almost all care actions can be classified into these categories. I have worked as a care coordinator in a street nursing home for three years. To be honest, this classification was not determined by experts sitting in the office and patting their heads. It was developed little by little after understanding the care needs of tens of thousands of elderly people. There is nothing fancy and they are all practical things. Generally, before we make a care plan for the elderly, we will first conduct an ADL (Activity of Daily Living) assessment, and then match different types of care accordingly.

First let’s talk about the basic life care that everyone is most familiar with. To put it bluntly, it is to take care of food, drink, toilet, and sleep - wiping the body of the disabled elderly, feeding, assisting in using the toilet, changing clothes, helping the semi-independent elderly to tie buttons, cutting nails, and helping to bathe, etc. To be honest, there is quite a lot of controversy in this area in the industry right now. One group of people thinks that "nursing is about making the elderly feel comfortable." Anyone who can do the work is doing it for them. It's best if the elderly don't have to worry about anything. ； The other school of thought is just the opposite, saying that the remaining self-care ability of the elderly should be preserved as much as possible. For example, if the elderly person's hands are shaking but he can still hold a spoon, don't feed him. At most, give him a non-slip bowl. Helping him with everything will make the elderly person's ability deteriorate faster. Our inn has tried before to do "autonomous eating training" for semi-autonomous elderly people. It was slow at first, with a meal taking 40 minutes. After half a month, most of the elderly people were able to eat by themselves. The family members were shocked. They said that before, the nanny found it troublesome to feed them again and again, and thought that the elderly would no longer be able to eat by themselves.

Many people think that eating, drinking, and eating is enough, but that’s not true. Last month there was a 76-year-old Uncle Li in our jurisdiction. The live-in nanny hired by his children only did the cooking and cleaning. As a result, Uncle Li felt dizzy after taking antihypertensive medicine, so he secretly stopped taking it for half a month. The nanny didn't even ask. In the end, he almost suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and was sent to the emergency room, which almost caused a serious accident. This is because he missed the second type of health monitoring care. This part can be said to be complex or simple. Daily blood pressure and blood sugar measurements, reminders to take medicine on time, and observation of the elderly for abnormal symptoms such as coughing and chest tightness are basic. If the elderly have postoperative wounds, pressure ulcers, stomas, or require rehabilitation training, they must find qualified caregivers to do it. Now there are different voices in this area. Some family members feel that "you have to find a nurse to feel at ease when it comes to medical care." However, the cost of a nurse coming to the door is hundreds of dollars an hour, which ordinary families cannot bear for a long time. The graded nursing system promoted by our industry can just fill this gap. Certified mid-level nursing staff can do basic wound care and medication reminders, which are much cheaper than nurses. As long as the training is in place, the probability of errors is extremely low.

The most easily overlooked aspect is actually invisible psychological and emotional care. Don’t believe it, the 82-year-old Grandma Wang whom we picked up last year had no organic problems. Even though she sat in front of her house every day and looked at the road, she couldn’t eat. She was only over 80 kilograms thin. Her children came back to coax her for two days to no avail. Later, I We arranged for a volunteer who had been a teacher to accompany her every week and talk about her teaching days. She also gave her a little orange cat to keep. In less than a month, her appetite doubled. Now she takes videos of the cat every day and sends them to her children in other places. The controversy over this issue is also quite interesting. Many family members of the older generation feel that "the elderly have no worries about food and clothing, so why should they be unhappy?" and do not take emotional issues seriously at all. ； Nowadays, the new care concept attaches great importance to this, such as nostalgic therapy, pet therapy, horticultural therapy, no need for professional psychological consultation, just find things that the elderly are interested in and let them do it. If their emotions are smooth, their physical problems will be reduced by half.

There is another type of care that many new caregivers have never heard of, let alone family members, which is social function maintenance care. To put it bluntly, it is to prevent the elderly from being disconnected from society, such as teaching the elderly to use smartphones to video and shoot Douyin, helping them contact old colleagues for gatherings, and arranging handicraft classes and choirs at the post for the elderly with mild cognitive impairment so that they can interact with their peers. We had a 78-year-old Grandpa Zhang who had a cerebral infarction and was unable to speak. He stayed at home every day and could hardly speak. Later, we took him to the inn every week to attend calligraphy classes. After three months, he not only talked more, but also became a calligraphy teacher for other elderly people. His spirit was completely different. Of course, there are differences in this area. Many family members are afraid that the elderly will be held responsible if they fall or fall out, and feel that "it is safest to stay at home." However, those of us in this field know that if the elderly are completely separated from society, the rate of cognitive decline will be more than three times faster. Even taking a small risk can help the elderly live a vigorous life, which is better than anything else.

Actually, this classification is originally used as a reference for caregivers. How can there be such clear boundaries? Take the caregivers at our inn as an example. Accompanying the elderly for a walk is not only health care because they can stretch their muscles and bones, but also psychological care when chatting on the road. Saying hello to old neighbors when meeting them is also part of social function maintenance. They can perform all three types of care in one go. In the final analysis, the purpose of classification is to help you find any missed care points, not to stick to rules. After all, caring for the elderly is never about completing the task, it has to be done attentively.