Hard Working Families; Caring For The Elderly; Caring for the Elderly

The hard working families is a co-production of Maryland Public Television and the Maryland Department of Human Resources that has been made possible in part by the members of them P. T. Thank you for your generous support. I just had a feeling that my mom didn't need to go in a nursery. She sacrificed for us. She was loving and caring and if she could really help herself she wanted to be in a nursing home. I think most seniors would like to be out amongst people and if they're able to get there are different places. You get tired of looking at four walls. One of our most cherished resources is our senior population. As

seniors reach their sunset years hard working families may have to make some hard decisions. Many seniors are living active and productive lives. But for those on the edge. Help is available. The Department of Human Resources in conjunction with the Department of Aging has been rewriting the book on the elderly. They are providing help for seniors and caregivers those who have become the sandwich generation. What do we do a long time ago before we had institutions away from me and then I live here with my husband my daughter Tracy who's a special person. Well she's a young adult she's 34 years old and my mother who is a special

needs but a different special needs she has all the time. Work is I'm hoping that I have leftovers if not I'm thinking about what can I get from the store superfast the cook and have a good meal specially for my mom. Time management is all about. Now I know when I'm my wife I knew it. Daughter was going to be a handicap. And I have no idea. My mother in law would be here granny. My mother had brought us up if you can read and one you can free one more. And so with that type of foundation that I had it was just like you just do it. I believe there was a purpose in my life for this time. After 34 years with Tracy I kind of had this sensitivity for anybody who has special needs it turned around three years ago. She went to Connecticut with my niece and my sister my sister and thought

everything would be welcomed as more than it got to be too much. And for whatever reason they were talking about what my mother and I hope and I just had a feeling that my mom didn't need to go in a nursing home. She sacrificed for us. She was loving and caring. And if she could really help herself she wanted to be in a nursing home. OK. So I could provide the love that she need I can provide the memory that she might. Xscape or may escape her because I can take her back and I can remind her mom this is what you instilled in us or Mom this is what you want from us. And I can keep that binding there. The Ottomans were able to get assistance through helping hands. It provides adult day care service. The program provides transportation to and from the center. The service that I'm getting now is a blessing because as a breadwinner

in my family we need added income and I couldn't stay home day in and day out and keep things running in the house. I have a husband that is a very strong back and he keeps me laughing. We will joke with each other or we'll work out like to try to lift each other traveling. And here's why one might be feeling bad how can I help to say something that would make you feel pretty good or make a laugh you know just for a minute. In the secret place she told body wise then I know I have exhausted everything. I'm free I can free myself from it because I walk the last mile. So I could be free about that time my cum might be

too much for me. Long as I know that I gave it my all and I didn't give up. I can be mentally free use anything you want to share with me before you go to bed. Why would you want to share a movie. Oh wow I love you too. We provide support to caregivers by giving them assistance with their elderly or disabled person at home. And what we're finding is the caregiver themselves. They need services. They're home trying to work raise children and maintain an elderly person at home and they become exhausted from this experience this is a new experience for many people who are now managing elderly parents and younger children at the same time that's referred to as the sandwich generation. We should develop the one that was healthy. Whichever

one got sick or vice versa we would take care you keep going into inertia. OK I all this is your vitamins. Promises made up promises kept an 81 year old Frank grabs mine. His wife of 58 years suffers from Alzheimer's. It was first diagnosed in 1996. You learn as you go from different things. Each day is a different day. In the beginning it was just her helping her get dressed or help her with different thing which progressively got worse to where I have to do. I have to do everything 100 percent. What's more the couple met in a defense plant in Baltimore. They raise their children in the city and retired in Carroll County Mrs rabs disease has changed their plans and lifestyle. A lot of people were surprised at what I do as long as I got the health. I just feel like it helps me to stay younger about taking care because it keeps me moving and

it's good exercise. I'm not a couch potato for it being a 24 hour seven day a week care provider can take its toll. I do take walks outside every day for about here for the winners because I want to make sure she will get up and try the wonder in the house. It worked out pretty good in one place when I put the chair Rob's daughter recognized that those short breaks weren't enough and suggested he seek professional help. Well I do have a care worker that comes from Two and a half church up at St. John's in Westchester. Then just going to church and had the grace of God. Taking about. Lord bless and help me with the charge. Well others your attitude if you don't accept it and you don't have the attitude for you're not

going to be able to handle it the only way the handles have a good attitude about it. Look at it on the optimist side and do it. We provide respite care to that which is not long term respite but rather short term where if they need to go to a doctor's appointment for themselves or go to the grocery store or just go away for the weekend we can provide them with someone to come into their home to take care of their elderly person so that they can move away and get a little bit of respite from the intensity of all of the caregiving. The day this was caught by the safety net at 75 she has mild dementia and needs daily help and supervision and she gets that. As a foster family member in the home of a retired Baltimore County

businesswoman Lynette Harris I guess I've been blessed to have a good client you know and it's a lovely lady he truly is. Ms Harris is a caregiver with responsibilities training and a state and county license. She gives LEO or her medications prepares meals for her and so much more. This looks like it may have you have a jacket. You see. That. It's just like a part of the family and we just go on a daily routine and Miss Leo has her own room. When the Maryland Department of Human Resources supports two programs project home and adult foster care that provide a dramatic alternative to nursing homes

and local social services agencies administer them certainly in much more cost effective and enables people to remain in the community and take advantage of community services and living their life the way they want to. And we're getting many more referrals of people well into their 90s then we ever saw before. So the population certainly is living longer. Davis goes to a senior center for part of each day. But back at her home with Ms. HARRIS She not only gets care but gives of herself at almost any time of the day and night she'll break out and sing a song. Whatever is on her mind. You know she starts the thing with clients own resources help pay for the care with the state making up the difference. And it is usually far less expensive than a nursing home or assisted living center. Now that foster care is available to people between the ages of 18 and 65 and it's the only one of our programs that is not state

funded it's funded completely with local monies. Caregivers aren't the only ones who need assistance. Many seniors would rather do for themselves if given the opportunity. That's where DHS are going to help you maintain your independence. Again I had a row and they did said one of the bits for me it was Washington how are you today. Good what we do is we try to keep its pushchair geriatric age population out of nursing homes as long as they can. We try to make them feel comfortable and meet their needs. Man name it dies in y. I am a. Gambler and he is your guy.

My name is Chris I cannae and I work for the Department of Social Services and I'm a home health aide. When you walk into someone's home they do feel a little nervous about someone coming in next specially if you're going to be somebody. You know it's a very personal thing and my personality is very warm and caring and I think that my client's consent side. But then the in the head of the head the one that is present. One that cared for me and they were with somebody three days a week and it's been five years.

You develop a very warm friendship every day. Yeah. You always come up with all these kind of lines for me. It's Washington is kind of grandmotherly to me she tells me some of the neatest old sayings that I've never heard of and I hold them very special in my heart that would do me good. Love the lives of the dead. Jimmy then the. We generally provide services such as that worker who would come into our home to help an elderly citizen remain at home by helping them with activities of daily living. Some elderly still want to remain active in the community but they may not be able to dress themselves or comb their hair or

whatever. Take medication a certain period of time they need to be supervised so an in-home aide worker would come in and give them that assistance and to keep them in a position where they can stay at home. I think seniors would like to be out amongst people. You get tired of looking at four walls. I am by old words. I am 81 years old will be 82 in March I had a friend that worked with me on the front desk at the Senior Center and she she had picked me up. We come in together. We got to get. It. Unfortunately she got ill so I had to find a way to get to the center which is a very very convenient service by the department. What can I bring in and take some who were otherwise

they would have to say they have no knowledge. We make a week in advance appointment to be picked up brought home. We can go to the doctors hospital for treatments or shopping visit friends whatever they have convenient openings for the medical service has priority over all the others. The fee is so minimal but you just don't mind paying that. And I just enjoy it. The drivers are very courteous. They help us in and out of the house and out of the center. Some people would say oh if I could just go meet somebody or have lunch with someone they can have lunch every day with a group of people and mix in with them. I think it's a very very good thing for people to get out. Being mobile as is absolutely important because it is part of the seniors sense of self. Being able to transport himself from one place

to another is part of his independence and the loss of that is used by most seniors as a very very serious loss. Remember transportation services vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Check with your local Department of Aging to see how they can help you get from place to place. We've all heard the stories about fly by night contractors in fast talking telemarketers who prey on senior senior abuse has become a very big problem. The H.R. is mindful of this growing phenomenon and is working hard to stop. In their own home seniors can be abused. By telemarketing scam artists or by unscrupulous door to door rebels. Les you know. With the. You know you believe everything you know you believe everything so when Dantley Sara Hill was taken by a medical equipment

supply company she and her husband had a good life. She'd known him since the first grade and they'd been married more than half a century. But when he became too ill to make it up and down the stairs on his own she searched for someone who could install a stair glide in their Baltimore home so he came to imagine that scenario. I gave him a check for nineteen hundred dollars. And that's the last for months. Years long after her husband passed away she and her sons pressed the company for satisfaction you know trying to get it resolved. And he would call in and he would be. To me very nice over the phone. We see a lot more you know the one mopey that are not at camp but eventually that believe and her patients were exhausted.

The attorney general's office stepped in and found that the firm had treated many other elderly Marylanders the same way. And the attorney general got her money back. He called me at my lowest point. I needed it. You know. And since this happened. I really don't trust people like I use to. Seniors are very fragile they're very vulnerable people will take advantage of them and we have wonderful programming and collaboration with the Department of Aging and the attorney general's office there are all kinds of programs available to help protect our seniors and put them in a safe environment. Grandparents have a special bond with children in a complex world. They're like a security blanket. There is a growing movement in Maryland where seniors are becoming parents. The second time around. OK we're going to get your breakfast because we have a busy day

today. Not every child has an excellent family to take care of them. When you see this child in need you just feel like I don't want this child to be laws pretty. And that's really what happens when nobody come to India to camp with them. Fourteen year old Devon are Neta Johnson and his great grandmother is a godsend. His birth mother was 16 years old when he was born. Neglected and malnourished his mother decided to give him up to foster care until Johnson stepdad and grandpa are all great on oil. When you take this you you have a kinship to them. So you want the best for them. You know you can go to sleep at night knowing this child as well. This is a head that I'm not going to see my child somewhere without you.

Problems that children face is not just a state problem it's a community issue deserving a community resolution so that the first place that you look for help is within the family because that makes it possible for the child to have consistency with people that they know. Grandparents become involved because they want to keep their grandchildren out of the foster care system. They do not want to lose that connectedness with their children. They seek to make sure that the children remain in the family by coming forth as a resource for these children are very lovable. Are you. Proud of. What. You do. I get angry with them and then I turn around and I do a little thing. Look what I got for you today.

Come on we're going somewhere and where will we get there. I know when I joined a grandparent support group there were other parents who had other problems. Sometimes we go to the meeting and everybody because you hear about would be gone through and how they have taken these children. I turned 16. And all of us now think she's one of the hurting part. In both the grandmothers their children's children and they keep saying you know I didn't like it and I didn't get. The Maryland Department of Human Resources has funded support groups throughout the state of Maryland the support groups and offer an opportunity for caregivers to come to a venue where they can discuss personal experiences share certain emotional situations with those who are experiencing the same

situations. Oftentimes they are dealing with feelings of guilt guilt that they have perhaps not done a very good job with their own children and therefore. Now facing the responsibility of having to take on their grandchildren they deal with feelings of resentment that they at this point in their lives when they should be retiring spending you know the Days Inn the sign of you well they are having the responsibility of rearing children again. Maryland has been in the forefront of the nation in providing kinship care services. Now let's look back at what we've learned. The image of seniors is changing. They are a vibrant an active group. The H.R. is working in conjunction with the Department of Aging to help this population maintain its independent local jurisdictions offer transportation for seniors to travel around. If your physical abilities aren't what they used to be the HRA can provide an in-home aid for those who take care of the

elderly. There are options which include adult day care and respite care to give caregivers a break. Adult foster care can also match you with someone who is willing to share their home. The attorney general and DHS are a working with adult protective services to help stem the tide of senior abuse and financial exploitation. Grandparents who are raising children the second time around can get kinship care assistance. The object of these programs is to keep seniors in communities rather than in institutions. Many times you may not see our name but the HRA is there for hardworking families and for more information go to our website at WW did you not impede c o r g or call 1 800 3 5 2 1 4 4 6 0.

Hard working family is a co-production of Maryland Public Television and the Maryland

Department of Human Resources. It has been made possible in part by the numbers of them. Thank you for your generous support.