Some people are always on the move. They go to work in the mornings, do their shopping in the afternoon and go back home in the evening to have dinner with their families. People receiving care might move to different places during the day, where they will be looked after by care workers or someone else.
Receiving care can be a stressful time for some patients because of the changes in their lives, when they might have to leave their homes in a regular basis to ease the burden in their relatives. These moves can be daily, intermittent, for a limited period of time or permanent (Block 2, p 92)
Parents take their children to the day nursery, the school or the childminder while they go to work.
Nursery school is different from home, because it is in another place, where the child has to socialise with different people.
Rosy takes her toddler Leo to the childminder every day, after leaving her other child, Jay in the school. Leo has to deal with with the change of place in the childminder’s house, and Jay has to get used to the school environment. Then she drops the boys in their grandmother’s house while she does her shopping in the afternoon.
Leo’s childminder lets him run in the garden when the weather is nice, or otherwise he can play in the living room.
He also he has to interact with other children and adults in the nursery school his mother takes him twice a week.
Nursery school is different from home, as the child has to learn new things and meet other people. The childminder acts as a mother’s substitute looking after the child’s welfare for a few hours a day.
She has to feed him, while making sure the child is fine in every way. Leo will miss his mother, whereas his brother Jay has to learn to interact with strangers in the school (Block 2, p 92)
The children must get used to their mother leaving them with someone else, who might not be a friend or a member of their family.
Older people face major changes in their lives when they have to be cared in a nursing home far from their homes and families.
Suffering from Alzheimer’s decease, Mr. Bright has to be cared at home by his wife and by social workers and in a day centre (Block2, p 94)
He goes to the centre during the day, and care workers help him go to bed in the evenings, a disruption for someone who keeps on forgetting everything amidst the confusion of his mind.
He doesn’t know where he is or what the strangers want as he arrives at the day centre. Everything must be confusing in a world he doesn’t understand or remember.
The care workers help him to settle on his arrival at the place, where he needs lots of reassurance that everything will be fine. They have to soothe his mind, while talking to him so that he understands everything is fine. He doesn’t remember anyone or anything, even if he goes there in a regular basis.
We welcome Alan as he arrives off the bus. He is quite disoriented and may go off down the drive (Block2, p 95)
The workers sit him down at a table with a cup of tea to calm down, and they stay by his side, reassuring him everything will be all right in a place full of strangers. He has to learn to trust them once more.
Care workers must provide a calm environment for the patients, focussing in the abilities rather than in their disabilities.
They must keep them busy during the day with a series of activities to improve their skills while having patience, tolerance and the ability to understand people with their problems.
They have done something for someone.
The building must have an open plan nature to accommodate the needs of people with Alzheimer’s decease so they won’t come to any danger (Block2, p 96)
It has to inspire confidence in someone who is amongst strangers he doesn’t know most of the time, because of his illness. .
They have to have the doors secured to stop the patients wandering away from the place.
Even if they go home shuttered, they have to know that along the line they have provided happiness for someone.
The job entails an understanding of dementia and the effects on patient, the ability to slow down and not to rush around, patience, tolerance and to be flexible.
Mr. Bright feels disoriented after arriving at the centre. His loss of memory means that he doesn’t know where he is or why he has been taken there.
The carers must calm him down by talking to him, while soothing his nerves and making him feel more relaxed with his surroundings.
The centre has to have safety features, like locks in the doors to help keep the patients safe during the day, and a peaceful environment where they can relax.
Mr. Bright needs lots of support from the care workers to get through his time there as he keeps on forgetting everything. By making him feel welcome, they must gain his confidence, even though he has little control over his situation.
Mrs. Bright shares the care of her husband with a few care workers, who have to invade his privacy while assisting to his needs, and helping him to keep his dignity. They must help him to get dressed after he has had a bath otherwise he might not do anything properly.
Mr. Bright is at the mercy of strangers in the day centre, while the child left with the childminder also needs reassurance. He has to know that everyone cares about him until he feels safe in the childminder’s home.
We have two similar situations here. The children have to leave their familiar surroundings to go to the childminder and Mr. Bright is cared by care workers in the centre during the day and by the workers and his wife in the evenings.
They need reassurance and orientation to get used to the different people intruding into their lives in a regular basis, when they feel ill and vulnerable.
People are on the move everyday but these changes can be minimised to make their lives better. The carers must be calm and reassuring when welcoming the patients arriving at the centre in a regular basis.
It must inspire confidence by making use of the space, while providing activities to keep the patients occupied during the day. He didn’t like the respite centre, where he used to go for some time, because of his unfamiliarity with the place.
Familiarity with your surroundings and being able to know where you are, play a part in the lives of patients, who have to cope with change of place in a daily basis.
============================================================================
Receiving care can be stressful for some people, because of the changes involved in their lives at a time when they might have to move away from home. Some people have to be looked after by someone else because they are too old and frail, too young or suffer from an illness.
People receiving care might have to move to another place during the day, at the weekends or once a month, where they have to deal with new people or surroundings. It must be a worrying time because of the changes in their lives due to old age or ill health.
They might need care in a regular basis to ease the burden on their relatives or spouses.
These moves, stressful for most people but especially for the elderly or the very young, can be daily, intermittent, for a limited period of time or permanent (Block 2, p 92)
Some people move between different places during the day. Parents take their children to the day nursery, the school or the childminder while they go to work.
Nursery school is different from home, because it is in another building away from the child’s home, where he has to socialise with different people, while the childminder looks after the child in her own home.
Rosy takes her toddler Leo to the childminder every day, after leaving her other child, Jay in the school. Leo has to cope with the change of place and people, while he is in the childminder’s house, while Jay has to get used to the school environment. Then she drops the boys in their grandmother’s house in the afternoon while she goes does some shopping.
The children have to cope with different surroundings during the day. Leo’s childminder lets him run in the garden when the weather is nice, or otherwise he can play with a few toys in the living room.
He also he has to interact with other children and adults in the nursery school his mother takes him twice a week, while Jay goes to the school.
Nursery school is different from home, as the child has to learn new things and meet other people. The childminder acts as a mother’s substitute looking after the child’s welfare for a few hours a day.
She has to feed him, while making sure the child is fine in every way. Leo will miss his mother even though he has someone looking after him, whereas Jay has to learn to interact with strangers in the school (Block 2, p 92)
The children must get used to their mother leaving them with someone else, who might not be a friend or a member of their family.
Older people facer major changes in their lives when they have to go to another place or if they live in a nursing home. They might have to adapt to new people in different settings far from their homes and families.
It has to be an upheaval for someone used to having his relatives around or who is not used to living somewhere else. The problem gets worse when the person suffers from Alzheimer’s decease like Mr. Bright (Block2, p 94)
He is cared at home by his wife but also goes to a day centre during the day, and three care workers help him go to bed in the evenings. It has to be a disruption for someone who is confused and keeps on forgetting everything most of the time.
Because of his Alzheimer’s decease, any changes during the day might leave him disoriented. He doesn’t know where he is or what the strangers might want as he arrives at the day centre. Everything must be confusing in a world he doesn’t understand.
We have two similar situations where the children have to leave their familiar surroundings to go to the childminder and Mr. Bright is cared by care workers in the centre and in the evenings by care workers and his wife.
They need reassurance and orientation to get used to the different people intruding into their lives in a regular basis.
Someone has to calm Mr. Bright down, after he arrives at the centre where he is at the mercy of strangers he has never met, even if his memory is not good. He can’t focus on anything for a length of time and he goes wandering about the home, exploring his surroundings.
The child left with the childminder also needs reassurance, because he is not with his mother anymore. He has to know that everyone cares about him. The childminder has to reassure him until he feels safe and happy in her care.
Mr. Bright feels disoriented after arriving at the day centre. His loss of memory means that he doesn’t know where he is or why he has been taken there. By offering him a cup of tea after sitting him down in the lounge, they try to calm his fear of the unknown hunting him forever.
They have to enhance ability rather than focussing in the disability while providing a calm environment for the patients.
By providing a calm environment with safety features, like locks in the doors so that he can’t leave the place and a happy atmosphere, they will help him to settle in a place he doesn’t remember even if he has been many times before.
The building has to inspire confidence in someone who is afraid of the unknown and of all the people talking to him. He might wonder what they want and why he has come amongst all the other mysteries of his mind.
==================================
Caring has come a long way since its humble beginnings in the nineteenth century, when poor people had to go in the workhouse if they didn’t have enough money to feed their families. The state used to give a fixed amount of money, called outdoor relief to support disabled people. Aspley Guise’s records (1) from Bedfordshire show the amounts of money paid by the state to some families for looking after sick relatives. It shows that care in the community is really an old idea.
10th of March 1759-pd Mary Bushby for nursing widow Doulton. 1s 5p (2)
The first public asylum for mentally ill patients opened in 1811, but old people would be sent to the workhouse or some other institutions. Hospitals replaced the workhouses in the nineteenth and mid twentieth century.
Institutional care meant people had to live far from their families and conditions could be poor. It was paid by taxation and the patients didn’t know how to fend for themselves in the outside world if they ever left the place.
A few scandals, publicised by the papers, rocked the hospitals in the sixties and seventies, forcing the authorities to consider another option for looking after the patients. Some campaigners for the mentally handicapped people argued that the patients needed to live within the community and closer to their families in order to lead better lives.
The white paper of 1989 thought that patients might benefit if they lived with their relatives instead of being in the hospital wards. Preceding the mental health act of 1990, the white paper wanted to provide services at a lower cost to the tax payers and the government.
The white paper thought it would be a good investment for the patients to live closer to their families, after setting new rules to help them live in the community. Paid home care became an important goal in the government, where care workers provided the basic needs, while using their own judgement and listening to their clients to get their problems into perspective.
A care worker would be assigned to each patient in their own home or in hostels provided by the local authority. This person would look after the patient in a regular basis, making sure he took the medications prescribed by the doctor and everything else was all right in his or her home.
By talking to the patient, they might establish a rapport, where the care worker would become the patient’s best friend while looking after his health. She has to keep in mind she is only helping the patient to regain her health, keeping her professionalism in everything she does.
She must have self esteem, greater tolerance and patience and the ability to get problems into perspective when using her own judgement. By getting too involved in the lives of the people she helps she might get into trouble.
She has to supervise her patients taking their medications at the same time every day, while keeping their records, and being aware of any health requirements the company might have. By making the patient’s life more comfortable, she might help them to regain their confidence in life.
The status of home care workers might reflect these skills, but they have to do what they have been told or they will get disciplined. They can use their own judgement so long as it complies with their job, but it is not considered a good practise to do extra duties.
It might reflect these skills sometimes, when she can look after her patient without any problems, but sometimes she has to do more. She doesn’t get paid for the work she might have to do, when she has finished her job and her patient wants her to be with her for a few moments more. Sometimes she is called in the middle of the night to attend an emergency if the patient feels depressed or wants to talk to someone about her problems.
