The Passing

I have often said that taking care of the patient is the easy part, it's dealing with the families that's the hard part. Very often they don't want to believe that their parent needs care or that their parent is failing and can't do many of the things they used to. It's very hard to watch someone decline and unfortunately the people that suffer are the caregivers. We try and try to do our job but when the family is uncooperative or can't wrap their head around issues it makes our work much more difficult.For example, buying supplies. I take care of one man who really should be in a skilled nursing facility. His incontinence is a time consuming, messy and therefore dangerous situation for caregivers. He constantly pees on the floor without knowing it and so we have to clean it up. We need certain cleaning solutions and antibacterial soaps in order to make the apartment safe for us and any visitors. But the family isn't used to using these products, doesn't understand really why we are requesting them and so is lax in supplying us with them. They only visit once a week and don't see the daily routine of care that we go through. To manage this problem we need: paper towels which we first use to wipe it up. Then I like to use a Swiffer mop with swiffer pads to clean the area and then we use disinfectant wipes to sanitize the area. This routine is over the top for many normal households but we need these supplies to make the environment safe as well as to cut down on the smell of urine that seems to permeate many of these apartments.Next, we need plenty of laundry detergent. Who would think that so much laundry would be done for one person living alone but when incontinence is present sheets and clothing are constantly being soiled. Daily laundering is essential to cleanliness as well as keeping the smell down.Which reminds me to mention the amount of hand towels and wash cloths we need. Costco has cheap and ample bundles of both. When many people are working through daily hygiene maintenance it is essential to have plenty of both. Once a cloth has been used it needs to be washed. The threat of staff infection, bed sores et al is ever present.Bottom line, if you want to keep your parent home and out of a nursing facility then you need to turn their home into a nursing care facility. Plenty of Depends, laundry soap, towels, disinfectant cleaning supplies and hand sanitizer are essential.