Matthew

Matthew is a 55 year old who takes care of his mother who has lung cancer. She needs assistance with many daily activities such as eating, dressing herself and her personal hygiene. His wife also assisted with his mother’s care and they had 6 hours of home care worker assistance per week. Matthew himself needs hemodialysis for 4 hours in the morning at the local hospital to help him with his kidney failure. Due to his own physical limitations, and health concerns, he is unable to provide the care that his mother requires.

Needs Current Approaches used by Matthew Alternate Suggestions What Could Be Created?
1. Matthew needs help transferring his mother on and off the toilet, and into and out of the wheelchair safely. He had troubles due to his own physical limitations. Matthew was trained as a paramedic, and has watched many safe lifting technique videos, so he feels like he knows what he is doing.
2. Matthew needs help helping his mother use the assistive technologies that they have received. Matthew had a nurse and PT come in once a week, but he did not feel like he took advantage of it. 
3. Matthew needs help making healthcare providers more accessible because his mother has to wait for their weekly appointments for assessments. He wants to make sure his mother’s changing conditions are assessed quickly.  
4. Matthew needs help balancing his management of his own kidney failure with taking care of his mother. He thinks that if he was more supportive of his mother, then homecare would have done a better assessment and his mother would have received more hours of homecare.
5. Matthew needs help completing tasks he needs to do for his mother. He found out about meals on wheels, but was not aware of the service when his mother was in his care.