Humble Home Aide

  There was a case of a woman with dementia, an only child, living all by herself, her neighbors do what they can to support her and be there for her. Even though there was a Homecare agency involved in her care, their part was minimal. Her neighbors went as far as taking her lawyer and a social worker to court, for mismanagement and were fighting to bar her only relative, (a cousin who they claimed cashed her checks and used the money to buy himself a house) out of her life.  I have also heard cases of caregivers stealing from their vulnerable clients, but fiduciary stealing from a client, came as a surprise. According to Wikipedia, a fiduciary is a person who holds a legal or ethical relationship of trust with one or more parties, fiduciary duties in a financial sense exist to ensure those who manage other People’s money act in their beneficiaries’ interest, rather than serving their own.

I heard about an argument between a caregiver and a dementia patient, the caregiver was offended because the patient asked for additional salt in her meal. The caregiver that was involved felt that she was on the right, her explanation was that, she knew she cooks bland but was sure to have added enough salt in the Client’s meal. From what I learned, this led to a hefty misunderstanding between the two. What I would do in such a situation is to bring the shaker and add few drops of salt to the meal, and then ask with a smile, if the food taste better. When I was in school back in Germany training to be a Geriatric Nurse, we were taught over and over again, ways  to deal with any situation that may arise when dealing with a dementia patient, and one of it was a method introduced by an American woman, who gives lectures all over Germany. People swore by this method, My experience was that it didn’t always work. And that’s because it isn’t a one for all method, none is. Working as a ...