Frances Shani Parker and Anne Marie Gattari Television Interview: Aging Well in America (Video 30:16)

Frances Shani Parker, an eldercare consultant, former school principal, hospice volunteer, and author of Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes, was featured guest on Aging Well in America, a television show hosted by Anne Marie Gattari. The interview covered these topics:

Hospice

Nursing Homes

Volunteering

Caregiving

Dementia

Death Preparations

Intergenerational Partnerships 

Older Adult Stereotypes

Frances Shani Parker, Author

Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homesis available in paperback at many booksellers and in e-book form at Amazon and Barnes and Noble booksellers.

Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog

Caregiver–Patient Poem: Hospice, Dementia Aha! Moment with Music

Caregivers who embrace patient care with win-win expectations know that aha moments can come at any time. Meaningful conversations and feelings drift into a now/here place that helps us worm our way from the unknown to the known. Aha moments are not forced or always joyous and explosive occasions. Many times they are subtle, quiet with a settled satisfaction that brings whispered gifts of personal knowing about life lessons. One reason some people assume hospice work is depressing is that our aha moments with patients are not shared enough with people who are unaware of powerful scenarios we experience sometimes.

Recall a few of the aha moments you have known, especially those that made you better people. Many of you have had them. Share these enlightenments with others who wonder why you do this work or those who express a general interest in what your work entails. Aha moments can enhance lives of patients and caregivers.

This poem describes one of my favorite aha moments as a hospice volunteer. I had a very challenging patient whose name was Katherine. She usually lay in bed sleeping or looking up at the ceiling. I couldn’t tell if she was bored, unhappy, mellow, or all three. Rarely speaking, she never sat up on her own or walked. We mostly stared at each other while I talked.

Knowing that Katherine had been active in her Baptist church at one time, I decided to use my CD player with headphones (this was before iPods, etc.) to help her enjoy music sung by Mahalia Jackson, whom many hail as the greatest gospel singer ever. After reading this poem, you’ll understand why it’s one of my favorite aha moments and why I still smile every time I read it. Share your aha moments with others, and you’ll be smiling, too.

Sounds of Ecstasy

Headphones frame your head.

You look at me, your volunteer,

wonder what they can be.

Mahalia Jackson’s song erupts,

“When the saints go marching in...”

Sleepy eyes widen like popped corn.

“It’s a CD player,” I say.

Your mental video rewinds

through time from the nursing home

to an Alabama church service

where bodies rock to music.

I join you clapping with the choir.

Your stiffened hands move

with a powerful energy that rises

like a resurrected hot flash.

“It’s wonderful,” you whisper.

Mahalia responds singing,

“Walk all over God’s heaven...”

I picture you joking with Death

when it’s your time to holy dance

to the Other Side of Through.

Mesmerized by the music,

you soak in every song.

A CD player exhilarates you

with sounds of ecstasy.

Such an easy thing for me

to bring, but before I leave,

you say you love me twice.

© Frances Shani Parker from Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes

Frances Shani Parker, Author

Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homesis available in paperback at many booksellers and also in e-book form at Amazon and Barnes and Noble booksellers.

Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog

Service Robots: Long-Term Care Technology Helps Staff and Residents (Nursing Home Video 4:22)

Meet Care-O-Bot and CASERO, two German robot brothers that can provide needed services in long-term care facilities. Care-O-Bot is a robot assistant, while CASERO is an automated guided vehicle system. Previously, I shared information with you about Nursebot Pearl, a robot that services patients in private homes. She has a caregiving voice and an emotional face with interchangeable parts. 

Through robots, technology strives to meet the needs of our growing population of older adults who are living longer with healthcare concerns.  Of course, expensive robots will never replace compassionate and efficient healthcare workers. But they can provide services that allow healthcare workers to have more time with residents and enhance quality of their lives. Depending on the degree of dementia, robot trials indicate that people with dementia can accept robots and be amused by them.

What about our two robot brothers and some of the services they perform? Care-O-Bot, the younger of the two, can enter a room, introduce himself, pass out drinks, and even keep track of who drank and how much. With colored cameras used like eyes, this robot can recognize and respond to individual faces, play games, and lead residents in singing. CASERO, a more developed robot, uses its multiple cameras to monitor hallways and transports objects by guiding itself, sending for an elevator, and riding it to another floor. Change is slow, and, while everybody may not love service robots, many people do. You can read more about both robots in this article about service robots.

This video titled ‪Service Robots in Nursing Homes: Care-O-Bot 3 and CASERO‬ shows the robots in operation at Parkheim Berg, a nursing home in Germany:

         

Frances Shani Parker, Author

Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes is available in paperback at many booksellers and in e-book form at Amazon and Barnes and Noble booksellers.

Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog

Dementia Quiz: Four Questions (Research, Dementia Adult Daycare Video 2:46)

Can you answer these four questions about dementia? View answers below the dementia daycare video.

1)    Where do most people with dementia die (home or institution)?

2)    Name two illnesses people with dementia usually die from?

3)    What is the second most common form of dementia affecting older adults after Alzheimer’s disease?

4)    Name two reasons dementia daycare is beneficial for caregivers and people with dementia.?

This video titled KRIV 26 - Sheltering Arms for Dementia Patients.flv supports not only people with dementia, but also those with several other impairments. It gives an overview of the kinds of activities that engage participants and improve their quality of life at daycare programs.

Answers (Good luck!):

1)    (Death Location) A widespread myth is that most patients with dementia live and die in nursing homes. Many people think that as the disease progresses, most patients go from home to hospital to a nursing home and stay there, but dementia patients make various transitions in care, following no definite path.

2)    (Death Illnesses) People with dementia, including advanced dementia, usually die from cancer, heart   disease or pneumonia.

3)    (Dementia 2^nd) Dementia with Lewy bodies or Lewy body dementia is the second most common form of dementia to affect older adults after Azheimer’s disease.

4)    (Daycare Benefits) Dementia daycare programs allow people with dementia to continue living at home. They provide beneficial individual and group activities and additional support services. Caregivers enjoy having more time for themselves without worrying about loved ones’ safety and quality of life.

Frances Shani Parker, Author

Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes is available in paperback at many booksellers and in e-book form at Amazon and Barnes and Noble booksellers.

Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog