Community Health Care: Fostering good times for Dementia patients

Jul 03, 2017 News

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By Feona Morrison

Being diagnosed with Dementia represents a distinct change in life – but it is certainly not the end of it. Dementia is a general term used for a decline in mental ability which is severe enough to interfere with daily life and is marked by memory disorders, personality changes and impaired reasoning.
Caring for someone suffering from this disease can be daunting. It takes some knowledge of the disease and a positive but realistic attitude to enable an elderly caregiver to take control.
Located in the Court Yard Mall, Robb Street, Georgetown, the Community Health Care Agency (CHC) has taken up the task of caring for Guyana’s senior citizens.
It has been doing so exemplarily for the past two years.
CHC was founded by Abbigale Loncke and offers care-giving services for the elderly.
Its caregivers provide personal care, companionship, housekeeping, medication reminders, meal preparation and if requested live in care for the elderly.
All packages are designed with the patients’ needs in mind, to make them feel happy in their golden years. The caregivers work 24/7 to foster good days and even good moments for patients living with this incurable disease.
Jeanna Pearson, who is heading CHC in Guyana, said, “We have also extended our services to include a day care for the elderly. This programme works just like a day care for children. You bring your elderly parent and we care for them for the day.
They get to interact with other seniors; we have recreation and meal preparation. So you wouldn’t have to worry about them while you are at work or running errands.”
She said that one of the major problems the organization has encountered when dealing with the elderly is Dementia, whether in its early or late stages.
According to Pearson, “It is safe to say most of our clients are at one of these stages. Working with a Dementia patient is very difficult because coupled with the frustration that they are losing or have lost their independence, the patient is usually agitated that they have become a burden to their families, and as a result are inclined to live in denial of their illness.”
Pearson recalled going to do an assessment with a client and her mother, who was diagnosed with early stages of Dementia about a year ago. Pearson recounted that the woman looked very much in control since her speech was okay and she carried on conversations for a long time.
“The disease is subtle; it would take 20 minutes before she asked the same question in a different way. Yet that was not what struck me. “I’m afraid of the stairs. I can go down the stairs but I’m scared of it,” she told me.”
Pearson stated that although the sick woman could not walk without support, she believed she could. She said that the only part of the woman’s memory that is not lying to her is fear, since she had fallen down the stairs before.
Pearson disclosed that the elderly woman’s family was reluctant to provide her with a care giver – they chose to care for her on their own.
Pearson said, “ It is common in our country for a child to want to care for their parent at home, but after a while when they realize that “care” requires more than watching them or bathing them, they put them in a home with people they don’t know.”
The Palms is overflowing with neglected senior citizens, most of them suffering from memory loss and other symptoms of dementia, Pearson said.
“The truth of the matter is we cannot run away from this disease, placing our parents or loved one in a home does not erase it. So why not allow them to enjoy their last days, close to their grandchildren; close to you in a place where they know is home.”
She continued, “If you care for them, as they cared for you when you were a child, you would give them the best care. You are already losing them to this disease; don’t lose them completely by giving them to strangers. I believe that they live longer when they are happy. Don’t forget them.”
Caring for persons with Dementia starts with empathy and compassion, since they are prone to be becoming confused about their whereabouts, and even the period of time in which they are living. Pearson said that CHC caregivers show the utmost understanding and compassion with bringing care to the elderly, and are trained to handle the bouts of depression, the outbursts of anger, the tears and the sadness that they no longer walk down the stairs of bathe themselves.
Plans are in place to have CHC established in Grenada.
Apart from caring for the elderly, CHC offers babysitting and in-home care for babies and children, maid services, physiotherapy and massages.

 

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