Generic Canasa

PROBLEMS OF OLD PEOPLE’S HOMES

In many old people's homes staffing levels remain dangerously low. Payment for such demanding work is derisory, making recruitment difficult and training harder. Until these problems are tackled many old people will still dread the thought of entering a 'home'. In an ideal world the client and their carers should be as involved as possible in this decision; it is often made after much anguish and may well need the skilled intervention of a social worker. The elderly person should visit the home (hopefully of their choice) and meet the staff and other residents as well as seeing the rooms. Unfortunately many of our homes still have multiple occupancy and rarer still is the room with its own toilet. Carers are often riddled with guilt about the need for a home anyway, and when these other indignities are added the burden of leaving a loved one there can seem intolerable.
A client choosing an old people's home is means tested financially (differentiating him/her from a long-stay hospital bed that is free). An elderly person with no savings will lose all their pension and be handed back some pocket money. Those with assets (and they cannot be left to children in a will or given away beforehand) will have to pay the going rate per week. This again can cause some friction as many people save to leave their family something, and the thought of it all being used up through no fault of their's is especially upsetting.
A lot of research has been done in these homes. Although the clients may enter continent and mobile, problems can quickly develop. Most surveys show that at least half of the residents in most homes are incontinent of urine and that at least a quarter are severely mentally confused. One way of trying to cope with these very disabled people is to adapt some homes (at least one in each district) to specialize in the care of the elderly mentally infirm (EMI). In these homes special staff-to-client ratios are needed, as well as special staff training. Reality orientation and behaviour therapy methods are used to manage difficult problems and incontinence, but some incontinence is seen as inevitable and hence is not a bar to entry or staying in the home. Other ways of helping include close liaison with the health services, ensuring good GP cover and extra input from the local geriatricians and psychogeria-tricians, as well as specialized input from physiotherapists, etc.
Social services also provide the incontinent laundry service. This may just involve the collecting of soiled material and delivery of clean linen, but in some areas it also involves the distribution of pads and other incontinence devices. The laundry service is an invaluable help, and is often poorly utilized. However this service, and especially the provision of pads, etc., should only be used after the sufferer has had a full sort out of the problem, otherwise he or she may well receive the service when in fact their incontinence is treatable.

*56/128/5*
GENERAL HEALTH

• The expiry date is mentioned on each blister. It is different for different batches. The shelf life is 2 years from the date of manufacture and would differ from batch to batch depending on when they were manufactured.
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