When You Just Need Someone To Be There
The call comes in to the home care company on a Friday afternoon before a Monday holiday. A frantic, harried voice says, “My mother has just been taken to the hospital. She had a fall and a neighbor had not seen her at her usual time pruning the roses, so she went to check. The ambulance is taking her now. I am the only family and I am in San Diego with a troupe of cub scouts for a three-day camping trip. Is there anyone who can help me?”
Another call comes in. This one is on Tuesday, and a weak voice asks, “Can you be available to assist me when I come home from the hospital? My doctor wants to run some tests, and I am afraid he will want to operate. Right now I am taking care of myself, but, what happens if I am too weak to do so upon my return home? My family is all gone. I had no children, and my husband and sister have all passed.”
These are two examples of situations that are now happening more frequently than ever before. In addition to home care, these two callers need a professional to handle just such emergencies and situations: a Professional Geriatric Care Manager. When there is a need, in many instances, when one is sick or recuperating, for someone to coordinate services and to run interference with the medical and social helping professions, and the home management needs, more than a caregiver is needed, a professional who is familiar with resources and can serve as an advocate for the client is also needed when there is no family.
There are so many tasks that are so difficult to perform if one is not mobile and clear headed and energetic. Just checking out of the hospital and coming home can be a chore. The house has been shut up for a few days. The food in the refrigerator is spoiled and must be cleaned out and discarded and sorted. The medicines prescribed by the releasing physician are not the same as the list given by the doctor in the hospital, and they do not correspond with medicines taken before hospitalization. Someone has to go through it all, one by one, and get it all straightened out.
The air conditioning unit blows, and it is 90 degrees outside. Someone has to be available to let the technicians in, and to make the phone calls to get them there, and to get a fan set up in the meantime.
The dog was in the kennel, and now needs to get back home. However, it is time for the annual bath and flea removal: a must now that the dog has been in the kennel. Having the family dog around, however, is such a part of life, that it would make one feel better to have him there at home. Someone needs to tend to it.
Recuperating from an operation or an illness is enough of an energy drainer, that oftentimes there just is not enough time or energy to get everything done. If family and friends can help, that is great. However, there are many times when what one needs is just too much to ask a neighbor or friend to do. Or a family with young children and heavy family responsibilities of their own may not be able to run another household also.