RE-ASSESSING THE NEEDS OF OUR CAREGIVERS
That is the fourth post in a series of mini-blogs dedicated to care….
In 2012, Tami Howe and colleagues wrote an article discussing families have to be rehabilitated along with our patients and we conducted a survey that exposed the precise goals that relations had for themselves within the rehabilitation process, listed here are 7 categories identified based on wishes of the guardians within the goal identification process:
1. You need to become involved within the rehabilitation process, especially in its early stages
2. Refill on hope and positivity
3. The flexibility to speak and maintain a relationship with an individual affected by aphasia
4. Receive information
5. Receive support
6. Maintain your individual mental, emotional and physical well-being
7. To give you the option to deal with latest responsibilities
It might seem that among the categories identified obvious…it’s ours caregivers wish to be involved within the rehabilitation process…wish to receive information and support. It needs to be inevitable that we offer our caregivers with a lot of these tools to assist support them, so-called is usually a strong support for our patients with aphasia. We might imagine we’re doing a superb job and check all of it off our list, but I encourage all of us to actually dig in specificity from these categories.
For instance, it’s possible you’ll feel that you simply are including your caregiver within the rehabilitation process, but you’re providing them with updates on the one you love’s progress, but without actually INCLUDING them within the rehabilitation process. What are you working on? How do you cope with this, and the way will a sound-specific activity help my loved one start a conversation again? What is that this the connection between what you do here within the therapy session and the way it can affect his communication skills at home? How can I help to make this easier?
Or possibly we predict…”In fact, I provide caregivers with details about aphasia and stroke. In the course of the initial assessment, I give them leaflets and a sheet with communication suggestions.” That is potentially an important start, but will or not it’s enough? We could have provided only verbal education, and indeed we have now an excessive amount of information to process within the early stages rehabilitation, so the data was not remembered or learned. Will we provide education visually, orally, or even perhaps in video or CD format? Will we provide current education based on everyone’s progress in recovery and how they reply to treatment? Education should be adapted, updated, ongoing meet with changing needs our aphasia patients and their relations.
In the ultimate blog of this series on caregivers, I’ll share some philosophies and words of encouragement that I often use to encourage caregivers tofind achievement and hope in your disrupted life.
Howe, T., Davidson, B., Worrall, L., Hersh, D., Ferguson, A., Sherratt, S., & Gilbert, J. (2012). “You needed to undergo rehabilitation… also for families”: relations’ goals for aphasia rehabilitation. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders.