What are the categories of daily care for the elderly?

At present, there is no mandatory and unified classification standard for daily care for the elderly in the field of domestic elderly care services. The mainstream division logic is based on the actual needs of the elderly, which is roughly classified into several directions: daily care, chronic disease management, special care for disability and dementia, and psychological support. Different regions and different service agencies will adjust the subdivisions according to the characteristics of the people they serve.

The most common and easily understood services are basic life care services. For example, after Aunt Chen, who lives in an old community, suffered from hemiplegia, her children were unable to come back often from work in other places. Community caregivers came to help her wash and cook a hot meal every day, wiped her body and bathed her the next day, and helped her change bed sheets and quilts and tidy up the house every week. These small daily tasks all belong to the category of life care. Don't underestimate these tasks. Just turning and wiping the bedridden old man to prevent pressure sores requires special training. The intensity and frequency are very particular. It is not just a matter of turning twice.

If the elderly have chronic diseases, it will involve the content of special care for chronic diseases. In fact, this area is still a bit controversial in the industry. Some people think that measuring blood sugar, injecting insulin, and adjusting oxygen parameters are medical behaviors and should not be included in the scope of daily care. But in practice, At that time, many elderly people with inconvenient legs and feet had to go to the hospital for a long time, which was too painful. Therefore, regular caregivers now have basic chronic disease care training. As long as they operate within the scope of practice, they can not only save the elderly people trouble, but also reduce the risk of acute attacks of chronic diseases. I once met an old man with a 20-year history of diabetes. Before, he always misremembered the dosage of insulin, and his blood sugar fluctuated. Later, the nurse came to monitor him every day and helped him adjust his diet. After half a year, his blood sugar stabilized a lot, and the number of visits to the hospital for check-ups was reduced by more than half.

If the elderly have become disabled or have dementia, the intensity of care required will be even higher. This type of specialized care is also a category that people are paying more and more attention to in recent years. For example, elderly people who are completely unable to eat independently need to be fed by nasogastric feeding. Those who already have pressure ulcers need to be regularly debrided and changed. Elderly people with Alzheimer's disease must be watched 24 hours a day to prevent them from getting lost, and they must also cooperate with cognitive intervention training. I met a 78-year-old grandfather at a street nursing home before. He could not even recognize his own son after he became ill. However, the caregiver accompanied him every day to read the lesson preparation notes of his former middle school teacher and asked him to tell other elderly people interesting stories about his previous classes. His overall condition was much better than when he was first brought in, and he could occasionally say hello to others.

Many people have not realized before that psychological and emotional care is actually a particularly important part of daily care for the elderly. In the past, many people in the industry thought that this was an "additional value-added service" and did not need to be included in the charges for routine care. However, in the past two years, it has been found that the emotional state of empty nesters and elderly people living alone directly affects their physical health. For example, there used to be a widowed Grandma Wang in the community. When her wife first left, she sat at home in a daze every day, was too lazy to eat, and her blood pressure was very high. Later, the nurse took her to the park to dance square dances two days a week, and also helped her sign up for a calligraphy and painting class in the community. After three months, she became much more energetic, and she even reduced her high blood pressure medication by half as prescribed by the doctor.

In fact, in the final analysis, classification is all about adapting to the actual needs of the elderly. As long as the elderly can live comfortably and healthily, the boundaries of classification do not need to be so rigid, right?