Dr Gaurav Thukral talks about the importance of home-based healthcare for alzheimer patients
World Alzheimer’s Day is a good time to reflect on a condition that affects millions of people worldwide but is still largely ignored, silenced and stigmatisatised. Alzheimer patients and their families often have to face adverse consequences including dehumanisation of the patient. It’s time we came together as a community and helped Alzheimer patients, their families and caregivers without unfair biases.
Alzheimer’s is a condition that doesn’t just affect afflicted individuals. It can alter the course of the entire family. Even though, this care is provided with the right intentions, it can have serious consequences. Alzheimer’s requires a long-term commitment and a family member as the primary care-giver does not work on several levels.
First, any member of the family, unless they are professionally trained, is not equipped to provide the right care to an Alzheimer’s patient. A caregiver needs to know how to respond to the frequent changes in communication and behaviour of the patient in order to provide daily care. It requires a team of medical professionals including a psychiatrist, a physiotherapist, an occupational therapist and a dietician.
The long-term care for people with Alzheimer’s can put substantial emotional strain on the caregiver. It requires enormous amount of physical exertion from the caregiver.
A household with an Alzheimer’s patient can be easily overburdened with high expenses. Since providing support for an Alzheimer’s patient is a full-time situation, the caregiver, most often than not, has to quit their regular job or take up a part-time position.
Conditions for Alzheimer’s patients and their families can be improved by strengthening existing healthcare systems. Home-based healthcare is the recent innovation in the industry that has the potential to become an effective and economic solution to providing care for Alzheimer’s patients. There are many different types of home healthcare services that can be opted for, depending on personal needs.
Simple things like a comforting ambience at home and the right method of communication can be life-changing.
A care giver needs to practice trained strategies to induce positive behaviour. This involves patience, compassion and even some sense of humour. With the help of homecare professionals, caregivers within the family too can learn to evaluate the patient’s erratic behaviours and inculcate strategies to handle them appropriately. Home healthcare allows an Alzheimer’s patient to be cared for at home and the family doesn’t have to go through the difficult decision of admitting the patient in a hospital or a care facility. A huge advantage of home healthcare is that it costs significantly less that any care facility and enables every working member of the family to continue their career. This factor is essential in ensuring that Alzheimer’s doesn’t impair the household income.
(The writer is executive vice-president & COO,HealthCare at Home)