Lesson 4 Healthcare Activities

Elder people are in higher need of health maintenance which family caregivers take care of. First of all, caregivers can help with medical or nursing tasks like injections, medication management and wound care. In the past, these practices were only provided by professionals, but nowadays in an attempt to shorten the length of hospitalisations and care homes, family caregivers can be trained for these tasks. In addition, medication management has become very complex due to the increasing number of prescribed medication that a person should have, the different routes of administrations like via patches or injections, the procedures that might follow some impairments like handling feeding  tubes or catheters and the constant monitoring for alterations in patient’s condition. If the older adult moves to a nursing facility, most of the times the caregiver continues to carry out these tasks and offer the same amount of care. Moreover, caregivers offer help during visits in health facilities and transfer between different clinical settings. Additionally, they are involved in the making of medical decisions, especially when it comes to patients with impaired cognition like Alzheimer’s disease or delirium.

Moreover, caregivers have the opportunity to use digital tools that are addressed to older people and assist them with cognitive and physical activities. Implementing these to their daily life can give them an alternative on monitoring activity, tracking physiological metrics like daily steps and alleviate cognitive disability.