How Media Can Play a Fundamental Role in Providing Care
Modern technology is playing a transformative role in how families and caregivers provide care to their loved ones. Media has the potential to draw caregivers and loved ones closer, creating a mutually beneficial experience.
Here’s a look into how media is shaping our industry, from my perspective as a home care executive.
Online training for caregivers
The Internet has had a tremendous impact on the home care industry. Resources that were once only available through expensive workshops or via textbooks are now accessible immediately online for everyone to explore. From the National Alliance for Caregiving to AARP to this publication, Today’s Caregiver, resources abound. All of them inform and educate caregivers on the complexities of what they’re doing.
We require all our caregivers and their leaders — our franchise owners — to go through several training courses online. We find that leveraging digital tools is an effective way to emphasize how to handle some of experiences of caregiving. Blending online training with hands-on workshops provides a well-rounded and effective training model for teaching caregivers how to assist with activities of daily living.
Whether a professional caregiver or a family member providing care for mom and dad, we recommend caregivers use all the digital resources available to them.
Digital learning centers for family members
Online training can help the caregivers with family members day in and day out. But other family and friends who support the primary caregivers also need resources for physical and emotional support. Fortunately, there are a number of resources available to them.
Resources produced for caregivers can benefit anyone involved in the life of the person receiving care. Beyond that, we have a family learning center where loved ones can stay informed and abreast of the care plan for the recipient of care. There can never be too much communication when it comes to supporting a vulnerable family member. Other home care companies provide similar resources online, through a secure login, that allow requested family and friends the information they need to complete the circle of care.
Social media’s role with elderly
As we all know, social media has in many ways changed the way humans interact with each other. When it comes to our elderly population, platforms like Facebook and Instagram can serve as photo albums, eliciting stories and memories of the past. So much of caregiving is being present for the other in the moment and helping them in a stage of life that can too often be lonely and isolating. We’ve seen caregivers laugh together with a loved one, holding hands with them as they look through photos of grandkids and children. The digital family tree unfolds in front of their very eyes.
Resources to understand dementia
Providing care for a loved one going through dementia can be especially trying for family. They may feel helpless — running through photos may yield questions of who is that when staring at their own children. At other times, it can be heartbreaking to answer questions about forgotten facts of life.
We use a resource that provides a realistic look into understanding what dementia feels like from the perspective of someone going through it. It’s a blended media and physical training course that uses patented sensory tools and instruction based on evidence and science. As part of the experience, participants put on headphones, special gloves and shoe inserts that make your shoes feel very uncomfortable. Essentially, you’re disoriented to the point of not feeling in control of where you are — throwing your senses upside down, you start to empathize with someone who is going through this every day of their life.
These are just a few of the ways media is playing a role in caregiving. The future is bright in this area as we study and learn more about the aging process. As technology improves, we’re learning how to better serve people in their Golden Years. All of us in the caregiving industry can truly help people age gracefully and continue to improve the ways in which we do just that.