I was listening to my favorite radio show this morning. The current had another episode on senior care. Today they were focusing on the care giver.
Since senior health is unpredictable, setting up a care giver system is difficult .
A large percentage of caregivers are spouses. In that situation you have elderly person looking after an elderly person. The care giver starts out behind the game. Many of the elderly care givers are soon unable to give the care needed. In some cases the caregiver dies before the person being cared for.
One care giver interviewed told the story of looking after her husband who had Alzheimer's . To say the least it was a challenge.
Many care givers are foreign workers. They are from another culture and have difficulty understanding looking after the elderly as they don't really understand the needs.
Some training programs have been developed to help care givers understand the situation .better.
A training program has been developed to put the care giver in a similar situation as an elderly person. A system of straps are used to make a person stoop, so they cannot look up very well. It takes no time for the trainee to get it that balance is a real issue. Eye shades are used to get people to understand what limited vision is like. The trainee goes through a number of situations to be able to better understand looking after the elderly.
Listening to the stories and professional comments has certainly opened my eyes on care giving.
The program I listened to is called the current and was on CBC radio on Mar . 28 at 8:30 AM.
