Whether it is for ourselves or our loved ones, care services are something that can provide different kinds of care beyond what medicine will provide. It can provide help to someone looking after themselves. This can be still inside their own home or a home where other residents stay too.
There is also something called urgent care. This is when a person or their relatives cannot cope and help is required at short notice.
During this article, we will examine the different kinds of care that can be provided.
Physical Conditions
When someone has a physical condition, it is not always possible for them to attend to their care as they would like. This means finding it difficult to take care of themselves in ways the rest of us would take for granted. When people are unable to move around as easily, every task can seem difficult, or even impossible on their own.
Where it is physical, we have social care to help as well as devices such as walking frames, bedside and bathroom aids, and stairlifts. There is much assistance to help those who lack the mobility to get around within their home or that of where they are staying.
Physical Disabilities
Certain physical conditions can prevent people from taking care of themselves. Bedridden relatives will need help with washing and going to the toilet, for instance. It will be the same for some with spinal injuries and, in particular, paraplegics.
Parkinson’s disease is a disorder that progressively affects the nervous system and movement. It can start as a barely noticeable tremor in one hand. This disease is known to cause stiffness and the slowing down of movements.
Disabilities of the Mind
Those who have conditions where the mind and memory are impaired will require help with care as the person may not have the mental capacity to make decisions for themselves and prove a danger to themselves or others. This can depend on the severity and stage that the condition has progressed to.
The health conditions that affect the mind include:
- Alzheimer’s disease – a neurological disorder that is responsible for causing the brain to shrink and brain cells to die, known as atrophy. Those suffering can, for instance, prove a danger by perhaps turning on the gas and forgetting to light it or leaving an electric cooker ring on and a saucepan boiling. This is because their memory is not what it ought to be.
- Dementia – a term that is applied to a group of symptoms that can harm memory. This compares to Alzheimer’s disease which is more specifically progressive in terms of a disease. This is in that it slowly causes impairment of memory and reduction in cognitive function. It can be slowed but not cured.
Learning Disabilities
Where there are learning disabilities from birth, then care can be provided. They may not have the mental capacity to take on the tasks of everyday living. It can be a problem if the parents that have cared for that person through childhood are no longer around. Someone then has to provide the equivalent care.
The trend these days is to keep people out of residential care and make them self-sufficient with the help of a care package. There are different types on offer to cater to the different medical conditions and needs out there, whether they be those of individuals or their parents trying to cope.
It is good to know that there is help out there. We can find the services online that will help our relatives and us. Life can be hard enough and there is no doubt that it is made easier for lots of people when they have sufficient support.
There is no need to suffer in silence and it is a case of seeking out the level of care that is necessary. You want the person to feel independent but, at the same time, to be safe and feel comfortable.
