Caring for Mother at Home: Remember Emotional Needs
1. Caring for Mother at Home: Remember Emotional Needs
You might recall my sister Cindy, but if you do not,
permit me to give you a brief overview: My sister
owned a very successful stuff-managing company for
many years, but she gave it up to care for our parents
in their later years. The timing was appropriate for my
sister as well as our parents definitely desired her.
Along the way, Cindy gained much insight into caring
for loved ones.
I'd like to talk about a little but crucial part of the
insight Cindy realized while caring for our mom -- the
importance of focusing on the psychological needs of
the aging parent/patient, and not enabling the
significance of "physical attention" to become your
entire relationship.
When you read Cindy's remarks below, I suggest that
you simply seek help in case you realize that you are
consumed using the "physical caring" only and missing
the opportunity to completely benefit from the
emotional and relationship needs of your beloved.
She was absolutely reliant and bound, while caring for my very ill Mom in the last years of her life.
Due to problems in coming off the ventilator within the hospital, she had been sent home with a
tracheotomy that she continued to live with. She had a feeding tube for nutritional support not to
mention, she had a urinary catheter. The extensive amount of care that needed to be delivered to
Mom every day was overwhelming at times. It was important to keep catheter website the
tracheotomy website, as well as the feeding tube website very clean to prevent infection. Along with
altering and bathing her constantly, it was a very busy 24 hours.
But there was something I tended to forget. If you are focused on a your loved one's attention and
ensuring you get it right, you can occasionally forget about your loved one's emotional demands.
Below are some things I learned:
Ensure their room is bright with plenty of keepsakes around. Try to reminisce with them about the
need for a particular keepsake and let them tell stories of its own significance to you.
If possible, have their bed near a window so they can look out. My mom appreciated birds and the
squirrels we fed outside her window. If no window is available, place pictures of the favorite scenes
in their field of vision.
Tune in with their history. My mother especially enjoyed me to listen to her talk about her service in
viewing VHS films about the war with her and WWII as a Morse code operator.
Take time for attractiveness! I learned to spend additional hours applying the lotions she adored
2. brushing my mom's hair, and filing her nails.
Quit and spend together time. Occasionally my mom only wanted me to sit with her and hold her
hand. She adored me reading to her until she fell asleep.
Toward the end of Mom's time she said to me, "Please hug me, no one has embraced me recently." It
broke my heart to believe I'd missed this very particular section of her attention. With all the day-t-
-day work that was on-going to make sure her physical care was completed, I'd forgotten among the
most important elements of care giving - spending mother and adoring -daughter time with my Mom.
If you end up in a situation such as this, where you're administering much physical attention that
there does not appear to be hours or energy please seek help. Being a real caregiver may be
ambitious. There are health professional services which may enable you that time you as well as
your loved one truly want so you can be a daughter again.
Home Care
