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OUR LIFE Monthly, published by Ukrainian National Women's League of America VOL. XLIV JANUARY 1987 Editor: Marta Baczynsky Love and Need: Caring for the Elderly at Home Responding to the pressures and needs of our society at large, the Jewish Home and Hospital for the Aged and MONY Financial Services presented a confer ence “ Love and Need: Caring for the Elderly at Home,” at the JHHA facility on December 9, 1986. The conference emphasized hands-on techniques adaptable for home use in caring for the elderly. Work shops and demonstrations provided practical strategies for families that are caring for an elderly andior ill par ent or relative. The main speaker at the conference was Dr. Robert N. Butler, Chairman of the Department of Geriatrics and Adult Development at Mount Sinai Medical Center, former Director of the National Institute for Aging and a Pulitzer Prize winner. In presenting an overview of the care-for-the-aged issue in America, Dr. Butler stated that only 20 percent of financial support for this issue comes from federal monies, while 80 percent is pro vided by the private sector. He emphasized that this is an issue of major national proportions for which our government is not prepared. “The government is doing a minor part and the programs are now miniscule for what will be required as we move into the 21st century,” said the speaker. Dr. Butler underlined the fact that our country has no national health policy and in view of the dramatically changing dimensions of our society, this may prove to be disastrous. Dr. Butler also pointed out that caring for the elderly continues to be a woman’s issue. Women, he went on to say, are increasingly pressed to assume and implement multiple roles, and many are called to do this in the later stages of their own lives. Calling his proposal “Collaborative Health Care”, Dr. Butler outlined a patient and health care system relationship which he said would end “the apostolic function of the physician”, and would allow for interac tion and cooperation between the patient and his doc tor, involving medical services, the patient’s family, and the voluntary sector, such as social services within the community. Workshops A variety of topics was discussed during the nine workshops of this conference. The aim was to introduce participants to the various options in providing the best possible care to their frail, elderly relatives. The work shops were conducted by physicians, nurses, social workers and therapists both from JHHA and other insti tutions, whose experience in geriatric inpatient and community care provided an invaluable pool of informa tion. The following is a sampling of the workshops: A. Coping with Disabilities: Rehabilitative Tech niques for the Nonprofessional Caregiver. During this workshop several practical demonstrations were held, such as bed positioning techniques for stroke patients to provide maximum comfort and prevent skin break down. Participants were also led through the “range of motion” exercises for the bedridden, and informed about safety features which could be incorporated in the home for the ambulatory elderly such as the wearing of proper shoes (sneakers were highly recommended) and the placing of non-skid strips on wood and linoleum floors. The instructors emphasized that the caregiver must be familiar with the disability the patient has (strokes, dementia), so that the care that is provided is most beneficial. It is also very important to get feedback from the patient regarding the care he or she is receiving. B. Love w ithout Hate: How to Survive Caregiving by Overcoming Guilt and Reducing Stress. Often full-time caring for an elderly parent or relative evokes a lot of negative emotional feelings in the caregiver. The in structor pointed out that it is necessary to separate the behavior of the patient (dementia) and the situation (stroke victim) from the person himself, so that one can hate the behavior or the situation but still love the per son. The instructor also sadly emphasized that an old person is not going to change, therefore the caregiver needs to change in order to make a relationship or situation beneficial to both. Guilt can lock the caregiver into an immobilizing situation that goes nowhere. It is better to substitute the word “disappointed” for the Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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