What is the content of daily care for the elderly?

In fact, the core is personalized care that takes into account physical care, psychological care, and maintenance of social functions. It is far from as simple as "taking care of food, drink, and diarrhea" as people often think. I have been working as a care specialist in a community nursing home for four years, and I have seen too many family members only focus on whether the elderly are eating well and whether they have fallen, but ignore the emotional needs and end up with problems.

The 82-year-old Aunt Zhang who was just picked up last month is an example. The live-in aunt whom her son hired was very good at cooking and cleaning. She never let Aunt Zhang touch the housework. As a result, Aunt Zhang secretly stopped taking antihypertensive medicine for half a month. She didn't find out until she fell dizzy and was sent to the hospital. When asked why, she wiped her tears and said, "I am of no use anyway, and living is a drag on the child." Everyone realized that Aunt Zhang would not let her touch anything, but made her feel like a superfluous person.

Of course, basic physiological care must be the bottom line. For example, the elderly with diabetes must pay attention to the glycemic index in their daily diet, and the elderly who are bedridden must turn over every two hours, otherwise bedsores will develop very quickly, and can be rotten to the bone in a week. There are also medication reminders, chronic disease monitoring, etc. If any of these are missed, big problems may occur.

However, now regarding the standard of care, the industry and family circles also have different views. Some think that the elderly should rest when they are older, and help with whatever they can to avoid being exhausted.； Some people think that as long as the elderly can still do it by themselves, they should try to let them do it by themselves, otherwise their body functions will deteriorate faster. There is actually nothing wrong with both of these statements. It depends on the specific situation of the elderly person. For example, if an elderly person has severely deformed joints and can't even hold chopsticks, you can't let him eat by himself. But if his hands and feet are just a little slow and he can move completely on his own, if you help him with serving rice and fastening buttons, it will make him feel frustrated. We had a 78-year-old Grandpa Li who used to go downstairs to buy cigarettes every day. His daughter felt sorry for his slippery roads in winter, so she bought him some cigarettes on the way to and from get off work every day, and refused to let him go out. As a result, after three months, Grandpa Li had no strength to even go downstairs. After nearly two months of rehabilitation training, he slowly recovered.

In addition to these, what many people don’t realize is that helping the elderly maintain social contact is also part of daily care. For example, some elderly people like to play chess with their old friends, but you never let them go, and they will get sick from being bored at home. Some elderly people used to love square dancing, but their knees are bad and they can’t dance anymore. If you help them find old friends who also like to listen to opera, they will be happy for a long time.

To be honest, there is really no fixed list for caring for the elderly. It is like watering an old potted plant that has been maintained for decades. You cannot follow the "watering once every three days" as stated on the Internet. You have to understand its habits. If it is watering more, it will cause waterlogging and less drought. The core thing is to pay attention to the real needs of the elderly. It cannot be done by following a process.