A Day in the Life of a Caregiver

Meet Reta
Reta lives in a small, 24-bed home specifically dedicated for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias. She has lived there for four years. The home caters to individuals in the first and second stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Reta’s disease has progressed to Alzheimer’s stage three.

A Need for More Care
“The need for extra care became very evident when some challenging behaviors developed,” explained Sharon Galway, owner of the Home Instead Senior Care® franchise in northern Toronto. Reta began refusing bathing and personal care, was often anxious and agitated, and refused food during mealtimes. Though the facility staff were well trained in Alzheimer’s care, Reta’s disease had progressed to a stage that the staff was unable to effectively manage. Typically, this particular home does not permit patients to stay once they have entered stage three Alzheimer’s. However, due to long waiting lists for other facilities that could accept Reta, the home allowed Sharon and her team of CAREGiversSM to step in and help. 

Capturing Life’s Journey
Capturing Life’s Journey® is an Alzheimer’s care technique taught in the Home Instead Senior Care network’s Alzheimer’s or Other Dementias CARE: Changing Aging Through Research and Education® program. It’s a method of better understanding an individual by learning about his or her life history and past experiences, and using that knowledge to customize care accordingly. Before Sharon and her team began providing care to Reta, they gathered information from the home’s staff, talked to Reta’s family, and learned what they could about her past. 

One of the biggest difficulties the home staff expressed was getting Reta to shower. Sharon and her team learned that she had never liked showers or water. They also learned she was a very particular woman and very organized. In her current stage of Alzheimer’s, she would get up early and get dressed thinking it was time to go to work. Then she grew agitated when a staff member from the home wanted her to undress for the shower. That agitation carried through to other activities throughout the day. 

Creating a Customized Care Solution
Once Sharon’s team had identified a trigger for her behavior, they came up with a plan. If they got to Reta’s room before she got out of bed and got dressed, they could redirect her behavior. So Sharon found CAREGivers who were willing to get there at 6:30 in the morning. They started slow to gain her trust. For the first few weeks they were able to do a sponge bath. After six weeks, they could see a noticeable improvement in her behavior. Now a CAREGiver is able to manage her personal care, bathing and dressing, in addition to helping her transition to group activities for the day, all within a three-hour shift. Reta no longer exhibits any of the challenging behaviors she had before the Home Instead Senior Care team began providing her with specialized one-on-one care. 

A Better Quality of Life
The additional care support Home Instead CAREGivers provided Reta took away a lot of worry for her daughter, Linda. When Linda visited, she could be a daughter again. It also made a noticeable impact on Reta. Linda said, “I can tell you without a doubt that having the specialized care added to the quality of her life.”