As a new mother for a three-month-old, I understand the difficulty of sustaining the needs of my child; as a Care Management Leader with nursing background I can empathize the challenges that come with elderly care. Other than financial expenditure, both types of care require physical and mental exertion around the clock. Considering this, whilst applying retrospect these last few months introduced the concept of possibly be apart of the “sandwich generation”.
According to Statistic Canada (2012), 28% of Canadians, within the age range of 35 to 44, are considered to be the “sandwich generation"; they have a care giver role for both, their elderly and their children. Among this populous, 7% reported financial hardships and 19% felt that their physical and mental health had declined (Statistic Canada, 2015). Although caring for children and elderly are comparable, the living conditions in which these people are presented are not ideal for both the caretaker and the recipient. With the evidence from statistics and personal experience, being apart of the sandwich population entails copious amounts of physical and emotional labor.
Due to the current health trends in Canada, the possible challenges and inconveniences of being the sandwich generation is inevitable. “Home is Best” is the current popular health care trend throughout Canada. This philosophy is derived from the belief that capable patients are better cared for at home in contrast to a hospital or facilities. To support this philosophy, the Canadian health services has and still is continuously expanding community supports services. These services include assisted bathing, dressing, toileting, medication management, meal set up and mobility assistance can be provided to people at home for free with certain criteria (Vancouver Coastal Health, 2015). Although the philosophy is supposedly accommodating in theory, as a discharge planning leader, I can see that the current available community services are still not comprehensive enough to fulfill the current home care needs. With the reasons being as follows:
Staffing Concern. Shortages of care staff in the community to meet the demands of help required in the community. Daily, I’ve been holding discharges due to the lack of capable, certified caretakers in various communities.
No Hospitality Services. Services such as housekeeping, laundry and cooking are not part of the community caregiver’s job. These extra tasks all land on family caregivers or friends, if patients don’t have any family or friends, the living conditions face possible vulnerabilities from the environment (e.g. bacterial, vermin infestations, etc.) thus causing health related issues arise again.
Timing of Services. Community support is only available in the morning and evening. Patients are bound to their beds after the community support leaves. If anything happens overnight, its up to the patient themselves to call 911 or wait until the morning when community support starts their shift. No one is available over night as many accidents occur overnight.
The above mentioned are the obvious parts of the problem, there are still numerous holes and downfalls within community support that go under the radar, leaving family and friends as an equivocal anecdote. If these deficits are ignored, detrimental consequences may occur, such as continuous readmission to the hospital due to infection re-occurrence or even worst, death. As family caregivers, we try our best to prevent these occurrences. Being burdened with the responsibility of caring for both parents and children, proves to be challenging whilst assuring the safety of everyone in the family, including one self.
As of today, there is no best resolution to resolve all the deficits. Increasing one’s financial status may help as a short-term fix; Money enables the convenience of quality hired help, thus fulfilling a larger range of deficits. As a possible long-term conclusion, I anticipate the government will invest more funding to hire more staff and widen community nurses' and caregivers' scope or else our future will become the next sandwich after us.
References:
Statistic Canada. (2015). Family Caregiving: What are the Consequences? (Publication No. 75-006-X). Retrieved from: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/75-006-x/2013001/article/11858-eng.htm
Statistic Canada. (2012). Portrait of Caregivers (Publication No. 89-652-X). Retrieved from: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/89-652-x/89-652-x2013001-eng.htm#a11
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