“Old age is not a joy” - a well-known proverb briefly and accurately characterizes the physical and mental state of an elderly person.
Old age is an inevitable period in human life
This is the most undesirable period of life predetermined by nature, causing fear and powerlessness before understanding the inevitability of the onset of the final life stage.
Every person by any means tries to delay the coming of old age, participating (as far as his strength allows) in public and domestic affairs, drawing the fruits of his own labors and achievements, rejoicing in the successes of children and grandchildren. Unfortunately, the youth of the soul is powerless in the face of the inevitable withering of the body.
Various ailments accumulated over the years, which at one time many waved their hand and which were not taken seriously, make themselves felt at the end of life, manifesting themselves massively and simultaneously.
Old age– a powerful accumulator of all diseases
In a number of cases, helplessness, capriciousness, irritability, forgetfulness, resentment, sudden mood swings are joined by specific conditions: Alzheimer's disease and dementia (decreased intelligence, senile dementia), which significantly complicate the life of both the patient himself and those around him people. Dementia in most cases occurs in older people who have crossed the threshold of 80 years. Those suffering from this disease forget the names of loved ones, do not recognize them, lose their orientation in time and space, the ability to dress themselves, take medicine, cook food, and monitor personal hygiene; they are often characterized by stupid behavior, aimless walking.
Caring for the elderly is an important factor needed in old age
An elderly person in need of care is often unaware of the absurdity of their behavior, and therefore is not able to adequately assess what is happening. The disease progresses and makes him helpless and completely dependent on others.
In such a situation, caring for older people over 80 falls on the shoulders of relatives and friends, whose task is high-quality and constant care. Tolerance and own time are important primary values for a person whose main condition is helplessness.
How to organize proper care for the elderly
Organization of care for the elderly requires adherence to a number of recommendations below.
- It is required to constantly be in the field of view of an elderly person so that he does not feel abandoned and does not experience negative emotions. It is strongly not recommended to approach from behind, so as not to scare him. An important factor is communication, which distracts an elderly person from self-isolation and oppression.
- A friendly facial expression, a friendly and sincere smile, addressing a person by name, constant care and guardianship are the components on which care for the elderly over 80 is based.
- If an elderly person has memory problems, hardly recognizes loved ones, forgets their names, do not strain his attention unnecessarily. In such cases, it is required to address the elderly person not in an interrogative, but in an approvingly affirmative form. For example, instead of eliciting an answer to the question: “Who came to you?” in order to help remember the name of the visitor, it is better to say: "Your grandson Sergey came to you" or "I am your son Alexei." An elderly person needs to visually demonstrate the actions that he should perform; for example, show the process of combing hair, dialing a phone number, turning the TV on and off.
If an elderly person is able to read the press or books, play board games, this should be used. It is necessary to conduct conversations on topics close to the patient that interested him in the active period of life. It can be talking about art exhibitions, theatrical performances, sports competitions, science news. Preferably reading aloud, viewingfamily photo albums, various illustrations.
It is undesirable to visit an elderly relative in whole groups, because a patient who has difficulty keeping several objects or faces in sight will quickly get tired. A reasonable maximum would be a visit of 2-3 people. If signs of fatigue appear, the visit should be interrupted, motivating the departure for an understandable reason for the elderly person: a visit to the doctor or the fact that you need to pick up the child from kindergarten.
Medical care for the elderly
Modern medicine cannot effectively cure the ever-progressive dementia of old age. Medications can only reduce or weaken individual manifestations of the disease, stop its development and delay the final period. Therefore, everyday and complete medical care for the elderly is of particular importance, the main tasks of which are:
- Ensuring the safety of an elderly person, because the most serious manifestation of changes in the senile psyche is the loss of orientation in space and time. The cause of domestic injuries in old age are problems with the musculoskeletal system, decreased vision and hearing. He perceives the environment in a distorted form and often cannot correctly assess his own actions that can carry danger (falling outside and inside the premises, forgetting to take the terrain and the way home, street injuries due to unconscious violation of the rules, burns with hot water when bathing, poisoning due to erroneous use medicinaldrugs, contact with the flame of a burning object).
- Rational nutrition. With age, metabolic processes in the body slow down, so it is worth reducing the content of fats and carbohydrates in the diet of an elderly person, as well as his s alt intake. To prevent constipation, you need to eat foods high in fiber: compotes, juices, fruits and vegetables. Assistance is required for difficult meals (reminders on meal order, use of cutlery, spoon-feeding).
- Personal hygiene. The patient, previously a physically active and clean person, in his declining years may becomeslovenly, lethargic, forget how to properly use a toothbrush, toilet, washing accessories. Chronic insomnia, which negatively affects the general state of he alth, is another negative component of old age. For its prevention, it is required to ventilate the bedroom in a timely manner, not to expose the elderly person to stress. Sedative medications may be used as directed by a physician.
It is recommended to purchase a cane to assist in movement, to remove unfavorable objects from the field of view of an elderly person, to put medicines out of reach to avoid poisoning or put them in separate boxes and sign the time of taking each. Make sure that the pensioner himself does not go out onto the balcony, accompany him when leaving the house. It is undesirable to change the situation inside the rooms; there should be no objects on the floor that you can stumble on and fall on. When a patient is in an easily accessible place (patch, firmly attached business card, bracelet, identification medallion), there should always be data with his name, surname, home address, phone numbers of relatives.
The desire of the patient to eat on his own, even if he makes mistakes and negligence, should only be encouraged.
Bed patient care
Caring for the bedridden elderly is a particular challenge. You can wash your hair with a damp towel, use a dry shampoo to wash your hair, which completely excludes the use of water and cleans your hair well. Hair needs to be combed every day; long curls should preferably be shortened to avoid tangling.
Caring for disabled older people is often complicated by their natural needs. If the patient is able to be in a sitting position for at least 5-10 minutes and feels the urge, then a dry closet can be placed near the bed and landed on it upon request. You can wear a diaper at night. If a person is completely unable to sit, does not feel the urge, then adult diapers are required.
Fight against bedsores
One of the dangers is the appearance of bedsores, and the older the person, the faster they appear. The main task in caring for bedridden patients is to prevent their formation, timely detection and treatment at the initial stage. The first sign of a bedsore is the appearance on the skina red spot, in the center of which a kind of “wet callus” will soon form. Such foci should be treated with a mixture of shampoo and vodka in a 1: 1 ratio, and then lubricated with a wound-healing ointment. The onset of bedsores develop quickly, so the patient should be examined as often as possible (at least twice a day), paying special attention to the areas of the shoulder blades, sacrum, knees, elbows and hip joints. Caring for the elderly over 80 years of age requires the prevention of bedsores: the patient must be turned over to the other side every 2-3 hours and the posture of his body must be changed. Once a day, you need to do a full body massage, in which you can use a manual electric massager. Anti-decubitus mattresses, available at medical supply stores or online, also help.
Design care for an elderly person
Very often, care for an elderly person, due to various circumstances, can be carried out by strangers for him.
There are several ways to arrange care for an elderly person:
- Execution of a will (or a gift agreement) in favor of persons caring for a pensioner.
- The conclusion of a life maintenance agreement is the most compromise solution between both parties. Under this agreement, property owned by a pensioner is exchanged for lifelong care for the elderly over 80 in favor of people providing such care.
