What are the daily care standards for the elderly?

At present, the core principles of daily care for the elderly that are common in the field of domestic elderly care services are "personalized adaptation first, basic care, and safety and psychological needs in parallel." There is no unified list that is universally applicable. All details must be adjusted based on the elderly's physical functions, chronic diseases, living habits, and even personal preferences. I have been working as a caregiver in a community nursing home for four years. I have seen too many cases where family members tried to copy the "universal nursing standards for the whole network" and ended up making the elderly uncomfortable. For example, Aunt Zhang, who lives in the community next to our home, has type 2 diabetes and mild cognitive impairment. Before, her daughter My son strictly followed the care standards found online. She was required to walk five thousand steps every day, and she was not allowed to touch any sugary food. Even the sugary garlic and cherry tomatoes that Aunt Zhang had eaten her whole life were banned. Within half a month, Aunt Zhang became emotional and hid in her room every day. Her blood sugar went up and down uncontrollably. Later, we came to adjust the plan and changed the mandatory walking to every morning when the sun is bright. We accompany her to the community garden for 20 minutes. She can stay a little longer when meeting old neighbors and chatting. We also allow her to eat two cloves of candied garlic and three small tomatoes as a small reward every day. Within two weeks, Aunt Zhang's mood became brighter and her blood sugar stabilized.

In fact, the core of basic care has never been to "strictly implement standards", but to "help the elderly retain the ability to live independently as much as possible." Take eating, for example. As long as the elderly can hold a spoon by themselves, even if they eat slowly and spill everything on the table, try not to feed them with your hands. If you feed them too much, the elderly's chewing and swallowing functions will deteriorate faster and they will feel frustrated. For an elderly person with dysphagia, puree the food into a thick paste. Don't try to save time by feeding him soup and rice. The soup and rice are mixed into uneven particles, which is especially easy to choke into the trachea. Last month, there was an old man whose family members thought it was too troublesome to make soup and rice. In the end, he choked and ended up with aspiration pneumonia and was hospitalized for a week. He suffered a lot.

There are many details in daily environmental care that are easily overlooked. It is not just a matter of installing a few handrails and laying out a non-slip mat. Previously, a family member installed a waist-high handrail for an elderly person's toilet. As a result, when the old man stood up, he couldn't use the handrail at all. Instead, he turned around and scraped his waist. In fact, the height of the handrail should be in line with the height of the old man. Generally, the height of the handrail is suitable when the old man's forearm naturally droops when he stands, and his wrist can just reach it. Also, don’t lay down floor mats with complicated patterns. Elderly people with cataracts or macular degeneration can easily interpret the pattern as a difference in height, and fall if they miss the mark. Falling and breaking a bone is a serious disease for the elderly.

There is still a lot of controversy over whether disabled elderly people should wear diapers. Some family members feel that wearing diapers will easily lead to bedsores and hurt the elderly's self-esteem, so they refuse to use them. As a result, the elderly always wet the bed and are prone to colds if they are slow to change the quilt in winter. Some family members try to save time by keeping diapers on 24 hours a day, but do not change them in time, and finally develop bed sores. In fact, there is no standard answer to this matter. If there is only mild urine leakage, use absorbent cotton pads for the elderly, remind them to go to the toilet every two or three hours, and gradually exercise their urinary function. If the elderly are severely incontinent or bedridden for a long time, choose diapers with good breathability and change them every two to three hours. Every time you change, wipe the perianal area and crotch with warm water, and apply diaper cream. Basically, there will be no problems.

Speaking of this, I have to mention psychological care, which many family members do not pay attention to at all. Many people think that care is just about eating, drinking and not falling. In fact, the emotions of the elderly have a great impact on the body. There was an Uncle Li before our inn, who used to be a middle school history teacher. After he retired, he always liked to tell people about his previous teaching experience. Every time his son came, he disliked him for repeating old scores and said, "Who wants to hear those old grains and rotten sesame seeds?" Within half a year, Uncle Li stopped talking. He sat in a daze every day, and his blood pressure fluctuated. Later, we held an "Old Story Tea Party" at the inn, where we invited Uncle Li to tell stories from the past twice a week. Each time, there were more than a dozen old people sitting down to listen. Within two months, Uncle Li's energy level returned, and he even reduced his antihypertensive medication by half.

To be honest, after so many years of nursing care, I don’t think there are any absolute standards. In the final analysis, all the rules are "people-oriented". Treat the elderly as ordinary people with preferences and emotions, rather than care objects that need to be manipulated according to standards. Ask a few more questions, "What do you want to eat?"