Daily care essentials for the elderly

There is no universal formula for daily care for the elderly. The core principle is always "safety first, individual habits first, taking into account physiological needs, emotional values ​​and maintenance of social functions." All "standardized care" that is divorced from the elderly's own living habits is essentially laziness.

I have worked as a care specialist at a community elderly care service center for three years, and I have seen too many examples of mistakes: Last year, Aunt Zhang, who lived in Building 3, was originally in good health. When her juniors came home, they thought the old cardboard boxes stacked in her kitchen were in the way, so they secretly cleared them away. She stepped on a chair to reach the pickled radish jar that had been stored in the wall cabinet for half a year. She slipped and fell and fractured her femoral neck. She lay there for three months and never went downstairs again. Interestingly, there have always been two completely opposite views in the industry regarding adjustments to the home environment: one is a firm believer in aging-friendly renovations, advocating that the entire home should be covered with non-slip floor coverings, all corners should be covered with soft edges, and bathrooms should be equipped with one-touch callers. They even recommend replacing all the old furniture that the elderly have used for decades with rounded corners. ； The other group is the habit-oriented group, which says that unless the elderly person becomes disabled or mentally ill, they should never mess with the arrangement of his belongings. The old stool that you think is in the way may be the support point that he must hold on to in the movement route he has walked for decades. My own experience in the past few years is that both are right, but they have to be mixed together: the non-slip mats in the bathroom and the handrails beside the toilet must be installed, but the enamel tub he has kept next to the bedside table for 30 years does not have to be moved to the TV cabinet. It is safer than anything else that can be reached by others. Oh, by the way, there is another thing that many people ignore, that is, don’t randomly change the brand of the medicine that the elderly often take. Even if the ingredients are exactly the same, he may not recognize it if the packaging has changed, thinking that you have given him a fake medicine, and refuse to take it. This happened before. Uncle Zhang's son bought him imported antihypertensive drugs, the ingredients of which were exactly the same as those made in China. Uncle Zhang thought his son was lying to him, so he secretly stopped taking the medicine and almost suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. Later, he switched back to the original domestic medicine, and he took it obediently.

A family member came to me before and said that his mother secretly ate pickles every day. He refused to listen to me countless times and asked me what to do. I followed her home and found out that the old man had bad teeth and his dentures were wearing on his gums. He couldn't chew light boiled vegetables, so he liked to eat porridge with dried salted radish. You said that according to nutritional standards, pickles are high in nitrite, so you shouldn't eat more of them, but if you don't let her eat them, she won't be able to eat every day. The harm of insufficient nutritional intake is much greater than that little nitrite. Nowadays, the academic community is actually arguing about whether it is more important to strictly control sugar and oil to extend life expectancy, or whether it is more important to ensure the elderly's eating pleasure and improve their quality of life. The advice I usually give to family members is: as long as there are no serious liver, kidney, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular problems, you can eat whatever you want and control the amount. At the worst, pour a glass of water after eating pickles, which is better than being hungry every day. There is really no need to suppress the last bit of the old man's appetite for the sake of so-called "health standards."

Many people think that nursing is about taking care of food, drink, and diarrhea. In fact, emotional issues are the most easily ignored. There used to be an 82-year-old Grandma Li in our station. Her son was afraid that she would be tired, so he would not let her do any work. He would let her sit on the sofa and watch TV after dinner every day. As a result, she lost ten pounds in six months and said that she was useless every day. Later, we discussed with her son and gave her some "tasks" every day: for example, letting her choose a dish before eating, asking her to help unpack the package when the express arrived, and occasionally asking her to teach her granddaughter to knit a scarf. In less than two months, her face was much rosier. You see, what old people fear most is not that they are tired from work, but that they feel that they have become a burden. Of course, you can't just go along with everything. For example, if she secretly buys a "health bed" worth hundreds of thousands, she should stop it. Don't worry about those trivial little hobbies, such as saving some plastic bottles to sell, and dancing square dances with her old sisters until 8:30.

To be honest, the longer I do this, the more I realize that the so-called nursing care points are never just rules and regulations listed on paper. What you are dealing with are elderly people who have lived for most of their lives and have their own temperaments and habits. They are not the typical cases in nursing textbooks. Uncle Liu who lives downstairs is 89 years old. His son comes over from get off work every day to play chess with him for half an hour. He smokes half a dry cigarette when he wants, and pours him a small cup of Shaoxing wine when he wants to drink. The old wicker chair at home is not replaced even if its edges are worn out. He can now walk up to the third floor carrying ten kilograms of rice. He is more energetic than many old people who live according to health standards every day. To put it bluntly, the best care is to treat the elderly as "people" rather than as "patients who need care".