Forming bonds

The bond between a Home-caregiver and the patient plays a vital role in the patient’s well-being as well as recovery. Read on.

What is a bond all about? Can it only be between family members or friends? Or does it depend on the time we spend with someone or the quality of our relationship with them? Most health professionals from doctors to nurses are taught to be a little distant from the people they care for. It is said that this allows them to be objective in crises. Not a caregiver though. Whether they are family or professionals, caregivers can only succeed in their roles and in making the care recipient comfortable by forming a deep bond of understanding and by making an emotional investment.

Seeking professional Home-caregiver service

Hyderabad-based Neela Peters’ is one such story. She has been a caregiver to her parents for the past 4 years. First, it was to her father and now it is to her mother, Sulochana Peters. Neela is quick to acknowledge that a caregiver’s job isn’t a bed of roses. Her mother is a lifelong diabetic with deteriorating immunity. In addition to that, she has Parkinson’s disease. She was diagnosed with the disease in 2016 and as it progressed it went on to affect her vocal cords. Neela says, “Her speech was slurring, and I was unable to understand what she was trying to tell me. There was an instance when she asked for me a glass of water and I thought she was asking for help”.

Becoming a caregiver to one’s parent is an overwhelming role reversal. And often, one for which we are seldom prepared. In such cases, having inexperienced help can add to our woes instead of resolving them. Neela experienced the same when she initially engaged individuals who had previously worked as domestic help to care for her mother. They were neither able to follow her mother’s care regimen nor connect with her. So, when her mother was hospitalized again, Neela approached Life Circle, a home nursing care provider, for a professionally trained caregiver.

Significance of a professional Home-caregiver

While rigidity and a sense of routine sets in with age, debilitating chronic illnesses like diabetes and Parkinson’s make it difficult to adjust to sudden changes and new people. For a bedridden person requiring intimate care, this can be doubly arduous. This is where a professional caregiver’s empathy in forming a bond with his or her charge comes in. We asked Neela to tell us about how her mother and both have grown accustomed to their Life Circle caregiver Premika Ekka. Here is what Neela had to say about her.

Words of praise for Premika

“To start with we found her dedicated, committed, sincere, loving, and clean. These are the attributes we found in her. When she came on the first day, my mother and I were a bit doubtful about what she can do since she is very young. But by the third day, she proved us wrong.

She is strong and can handle my mother single-handedly without any help. By the end of the week, she had bonded with my mother. My mother listens to her; they have chats and she talks to my mother about anything and everything. She also asks my mother how she is feeling or whether she needs anything. Premika also wakes up in the night to check on my mother to see if she is doing fine.”

 

“As my mother is bedridden she needs to be watched all the time. Premika is able to clean her and attend to her every need from time to time. My mother also trusts her and cooperates with her. I am able to leave my mother entirely in her care and attend to other duties like shopping and more. My mother and I are very happy with Premika’s services and we would like to see many more girls like her come out of Life Circle in the near future.”

Accolades for Premika

Neela is quick to agree with us on how important it is to acknowledge caregivers’ efforts. She always supports her caregiver in all her endeavors. Also, she is very happy to know that Life Circle presented Premika with an award for the wonderful care she had provided to Sulochana Peters.