Two to five years is the average time a caregiver spends taking care of a chronic illness sufferer. However, for the caregiver that provides aid to the Parkinson’s Disease (P.D.) patient, this role is usually extended well beyond this timeframe. This extended caregiving period is due to the fact that P.D. patients typically live a normal life span. With this in mind, we would like to share some tips offered by the National Parkinson’s Foundation to help make these caretaking years a little easier.
Planning and Organization
Planning and Organization is key.
- Organize all medical information in a notebook or binder. A list of medications, provider information, a short medical history, insurance information, and advance directives should be included.
- Have a plan in place for emergency hospitalizations and assisted living/nursing home facility admissions.
- Plan quality time with loved ones, making time to do things that they enjoy.
- Be sure to include them in family events and celebrations, keeping in mind that you might have to make adjustments in time, location, and/or food.
Dressing Routine
Tremors and loss of balance can make dressing difficult for the P.D. patient.
- Try to wait until their medication has been taken and is in effect.
- Be patient, as rushing makes their symptoms worse.
- Attempt to avoid items containing buttons and zippers. If this is not possible you may want to purchase our button aid and zipper pull.
- Let your loved one assist as much as possible in dressing him or herself and offer options, allowing them to maintain some sense of independence.
Mealtime
- Try to schedule meals during their “best time” and be patient. As it may take P.D. patients longer to finish a meal, you may want to invest in a keep warm dish so that their food doesn’t get cold before they are finished eating.
- Patient may get full more quickly than they previously did, so serve smaller more frequent meals versus three big meals a day.
- It may be difficult for P.D. sufferers to chew and swallow; feeding them small bites of foods that are easy to chew and swallow may make mealtime easier.
- For those loved ones whose vision has been impacted by Parkinson’s, use light colored plates for dark colored foods and dark colored plates for light colored foods.
Changes in Thinking and Behavior
- Be sure to alert the doctor any time there is a sudden change in the patient’s behavior and/or personality.
- When speaking to your loved one ensure that you are making direct eye contact and ask them one question at a time, patiently awaiting their response as it may take them longer to process what you have said and to form a response.
- Try to ask either/or questions instead of open ended questions when applicable.
- Give hints to help jog their memory when they lose their train of thought or can’t recall a word.
Taking care of a P.D. patient can be challenging. Hopefully these tips and some of our aids can help lighten the load.
Copyright 2016 The Wright Stuff, Inc. Article may only be redistributed in its unedited form. Written permission from the Wright Stuff, Inc. must be obtained to reprint or cite the information contained within this article.
