According to a paper recently published by Kaiser Permanente, more than half of patients in managed care programs being treated for chronic pain are seeking alternative forms of pain management, and their primary care doctors do not know about it. This is a disturbing trend, even if much of the treatment involves chiropractors and acupuncture type therapies, but the moral to take away from this is the fact that there is a disconnect in communication between the different parties helping provide assistance within the senior citizen population.
How can this be rectified within your family? First, make sure that all of your elderly loved one’s care needs are coordinated. If you help drive your mom or dad to appointments, make sure that you are aware of what the appointments are for, and what was discussed. Most importantly, ensure that you are listed as someone that medical information can be disclosed to so that you can be involved with the process. This will allow you to act as a safeguard so that communication is that much easier.
Also, pay attention to any senior care that is provided, even if it is very slight or of a respite nature. By listening to what any caregivers are saying, you can pick up on any care needs that might pop up. These might not be issues that you would discover on your own, and they might be things that your loved one would never notice either. When dealing with dementia, this can be tough to spot, but an in-home caregiver that spends hours with your parent each day may notice these things sooner than you would on your own.
It’s also vital to ensure that each doctor or specialist has direct permission to communicate with each of the others. This allows for the better sharing of information and if there are questions about a diagnosis or a treatment path, it helps each doctor to contribute their opinion in order to provide the best course of treatment possible. You may also want to include any outside parties in this information sharing if needed. This could include case managers, physical therapists, dieticians, and caregivers, just to name a few. The care team is becoming more and more popular when administering senior care simply because it allows a whole team of people to help make sure that your loved one is as happy and healthy as possible, rather than just one person. If done right, it will give your loved one a much higher quality of life.
Finally, help make sure that all of the paperwork is completed on your end of things. If you need to, get power of attorney papers in place so that you can help with the care process, too. Providing the best to a loved one is hard, and if they are starting to become unable to make their own decisions, they need someone on their team that will do what is best for them and what would make them happy. You might be the best person for that job.
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