Selecting a Home Health Aide

By Joan Blumenfeld, MS, LPC

Mother fractured her hip while dancing at the Senior Center!

By diligently doing the hard work of physical therapy, she recovered her ability to walk. However, the whole incident highlighted her growing frailty and precipitated a downward cognitive spiral from which she did not recover.

Mark, our father, wanted to take care of Mother himself when she returned home. He understandably objected to the idea of having someone move in with them, especially since that person would be sleeping in his room and denying him free access to his TV, his desk and his lounge chair.

But the powers that be at the hospital simply would not allow Mother to go home without a live-in Home Health Aide in place 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Freda, the woman we hired, was the niece of my parents’ trusted housekeeper and a Certified Nurse’s Aide (CNA). We hired Freda privately and paid her social security and workers compensation to protect her and my parents.

Freda was not exactly a gourmet chef, but my parents ate her cooking without too many complaints. She did the marketing, light housekeeping, laundry, assisted with bathing and other personal care, and accompanied them on walks and to their programs at the Senior Center.

She kept them safe and comfortable day and night and communicated with me regularly regarding their activities. Freda looked after our parents for the next three and a half years until they became so frail that one person could not take care of them both. (It was then necessary for them to move to a nursing home.) Freda’s presence had made it possible for our parents to stay home as long as possible, for which we are eternally grateful!

These are some of the attributes I considered in selecting our Home Health Aide:

1. A cheerful and willing disposition
2. A neat appearance
3. Solid experience with people with dementia
4. Certification and training
5. References
6. Background check
7. Backup for those occasions when she was not available

PEARL OF WISDOM

Screen an aide well before hiring. Do not hesitate to change aides if it is not a good fit.

Joan Blumenfeld is a Geriatric Care Manager based in Fairfield County, Connecticut. For information visit e www.joanblumenfeld.com. Copyright 2010 Joan Blumenfeld.

Do you have your own Pearl of Wisdom to share? Please comment below!

Using Advance Directives

By Joan Blumenfeld, MS, LPC

Our mother had advance directives, but no one in the hospital was paying attention to them. She was lying on a gurney waiting to go into the operating room to have her pacemaker battery replaced surgically when the attending nurse asked me if my mother had any allergies. Indeed she did. She was deathly allergic to penicillin and bee stings. But the fact that the nurse did not know about the allergies set off my alarm!

My mother’s health care instructions (known as advance directives or a living will) were quite clear: If she was considered terminally ill or irreversibly unconscious, she wished to be allowed to die and not be kept alive through life support systems. She did not want to be resuscitated. She did not want to be tube fed. However, she did want to be kept as comfortable and as free from pain as possible.

These instructions and Mother’s allergy record were contained in the envelope the nurse held in her hand. Clearly, if the nurse didn’t know about the allergies, she didn’t know about the directives either, and that was simply unacceptable!

I asked the nurse if she had read the advance directives. She replied rather huffily that she did not get involved in such matters.

Mother had appointed my brother and me to be her health care agents and given us power of attorney for all health care decisions. Even though changing a pacemaker battery was a relatively simple procedure, I could not ignore the fact that the medical team was completely disregarding her instructions.

Sensing trouble, I planted myself firmly in front of the gurney and held Mother’s hand so the nurse could not wheel her away from me. Although my heart was pounding, I calmly insisted the nurse find someone in authority that did get involved in these matters.

Soon, two doctors appeared. Without explaining who they were or why they were there, one got in my face ready to argue. The other, noting my distress, sent the first away and sat me down to sign some sort of form that would allow the surgery to proceed, taking into account Mother’s wishes.

The battery was changed without complications and, happily, we did not need to invoke the living will. But I was grateful to have the document at hand in case we had needed it.

PEARL OF WISDOM

Advance directives are important legal documents. Be sure to take them with you every time you go to the hospital!


Joan Blumenfeld, MS, LPC is a Geriatric Care Manager practicing in Fairfield County, Connecticut. For information visit www.joanblumenfled.com. © 2011 Joan Blumenfeld


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