Not much happening around here today, I am home on my afternoon break. I am taking care of an almost 92 yr. old woman. She doesn't get around very well and has some dementia. Her whole life is her youngest son, who doesn't spend much time with her, he goes in to get the bills and drop off a few dollars for her to spend maybe stays an hour per week. He is a Painting contractor and is a very busy man not just with his job but with his 3rd wife and her son. It grieves my patient that he doesn't spend more time with her. He seems to care more about how her money is spent and how much there is than for his mother. He has talked about putting her in a nursing home and she definitely doesn't want to go there. She was in one for 62 days when she broke her hip and would call me crying almost every day asking me to come and get her. I finally did go get her and her son was upset with me because I took her out and brought her home. The Social Worker told me all she needed was more hours for me to be there. She also told me that my patient could sign herself out anytime she wanted to go home, Her son led her to believe that he was the only one who could get her out.
It is very disheartening that so many families just leave the care of their elders to others and only seem to care about the money. I have seen so much of that in my years of caring for the elders. Other's just don't get involved at all and leave it up to the system to take care of the elders. Then get angry when we advocate for the elder and try to involve the family more.
I will get off my soapbox now.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment