Caregiver support

Imagine that you are older. Think about how you would feel when sitting in your wheel chair after several nights of not sleeping well, feeling out of sorts because you just ache all over and you have not felt well enough to exercise lately.

Imagine being unable to remember the day’s events or what day it is, just losing your yesterdays and in fear of your tomorrows, that you are scared of those around you and scared to ask.

Imagine feeling confused about what you should be doing next. Maybe you’re also feeling depressed, just like about one-third of nursing home residents. Imagine your family and friends are busy, maybe they are in poor health themselves or live far away, and they are unable to come and see you.

You get the idea.

If you’ve had the opportunity to visit a nursing home lately, you’ve no doubt seen older folks sitting in the lobby for whom your imaginary situation is a reality.

Who has not experienced the rush of joy when someone, a friend or relative, whom we have not seen in a long time, saw us, smiled and was just HAPPY to see us? So imagine going day after day with no one coming to visit you. The point is, there are many people in nursing homes that, for one reason or another, NEVER have visitors.

Working with Project Compassion the last four years, I’ve had the privilege of visiting and working with the residents and staff in 30 area nursing homes. I have seen the power of volunteers and visitors first-hand. Those kind, generous people who take the time to visit lonely residents, help with bingo or birthday parties, sing or play an instrument, read to residents and just walk from room to room and chat.

There are housekeepers who bustle in to clean rooms and take the time to share stories about their husbands and kids and garden; to give a little peek into their lives. I have witnessed the kindness of an administrator who pauses in her errand to squeeze a resident’s hand and ask if he’s going to listen to the gospel group coming in later today.  

There are certified nursing assistants who pause between taking temperatures and blood pressures, so they can run down the hall to fetch a glass of ice or a cup of coffee.

These caring people provide those little human touches that make our lives complete.

In addition to being lonely, many nursing home residents live on a fixed income. The Arkansas Healthcare Association has determined that more than 90% of nursing home residents rely completely on state and federal assistance. These residents cannot afford to buy new clothing, a good razor, a personal book, or the luxury of some really nice lotion – my mom used to call it “smell good.”

These residents have not always been old. They were young once; they had driver’s license, jobs, homes, and pets. They have watched their children move away and their soul mates die. Their health continues to decline so that just getting up and getting dressed and going to breakfast is a chore; they are the “unheard from population.”

According to a 2010 PBS survey, almost one-half of all nursing home residents suffer from some form of dementia. Dementia is the loss of the ability to think, remember and reason and the loss of behavioral abilities to such an extent that it interferes with a person’s daily life and activities. Its effects can be very mild, almost unnoticeable, to so severe that the person is completely dependent on other people to do everything for him or her.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia in persons over the age of 65. It represents about 60% of all dementias. This is a concern for all of Arkansas. Right now, almost 25% of Arkansas’ population is over 55 years old, while the national average is only 20%.

And that number is growing. The Center for Aging expects Arkansas to lose members of every population EXCEPT those ranging in age form 55-74 between now and 2020. This means we can expect nursing home populations to continue to increase. We can also anticipate that many of our aging population will be cared for at home.

Caring for our caregivers is a critical yet often overlooked step to taking care of elders.

That’s why the Area Agency on Aging is hosting an annual Friends of Project Compassion Dinner on July 18, 2013, at the Senior Center on Cavanaugh Road, Fort Smith. The doors will open at 5:15 p.m., and volunteers from the Healthy Nurses Congregation will be on hand to take blood pressures and talk about the services this non-profit organization. Healthy Nurses was founded by Dr. Margaret Tremwel, who will serve as the keynote speaker at the event. Tremwel plans to share a presentation about dementia that will include information for caregivers.