My last client lived by herself and had dementia. I had access by a key in a lock-box to get inside her home.
She had a notebook that had 3 important family member names and phone numbers on the front of it. The problem is sometimes this notebook got misplaced and I had to look for it.
I would show up Monday through Friday. My basic duties were to disinfect high touch areas in the home. She had this suction cup bird house attached to a sliding glass door and the squirrels found the bird seed. The squirrels urinated in the bird feeder and she changed the seeds without washing her hands.
I would make sure that my client was clean and had clean clothing on. This was tricky because I couldn't give her a shower, it was a comfort thing for her, she would have preferred a man give her a shower. My client had asked her afternoon caregiver how a person gets shingles. The other caregiver said, "from not taking showers." And that did work for a little while but not long.
I made sure she took her daily medications and I made her breakfast. When I first started, I asked her is she was hungry and wanted breakfast. She would always tell me no that she wasn't hungry. Eventually, I stopped asking and made her breakfast and she would eat.
There became a frequent amount of bowel incontinence issue within the last month that I was there. There was a nice reclining chair that the family had to throw away. She knew that she had to use the bathroom, she just couldn't get up from this chair.
Most of the time I didn't know what clothing was clean or previously worn, so I started a load of laundry before the afternoon caregiver got there. A caregiver could wash and dry a load of laundry, fold it and place it in a labeled dresser drawer, but the next day everything was pulled out and scattered all over the place.
One morning I found my client on the floor. I dialed one of her family members. We determined that she was okay and I asked for a lift assist from since she couldn't pull herself up. The EMT's came over, checked her out and lifted her up. Even though she was okay, this fall caused her a large amount of pain in the coming week.
Exactly one week later, I found my client on the floor again when I arrived. I dialed one of her family members again to let them know. This time the EMT's loaded her up and took her to the hospital. This last fall that my client had moved her up the waiting list for a memory care facility, which is where she needed to be anyhow.
She was one my favorite clients and I hope she's doing well.
There are basic non-medical caregivers that can visit home of seniors to help out with meal prep, laundry and be there for basic human interaction... a wellness check if you will. Sometimes it's needed on a part-time basis and sometimes it's needed on a 24/7 basis.
We are out there and we care.
= new reply since forum marked as read
