Paola is a 65 year old, who takes care of her mother who had a stroke. Her mother has been in and out of the hospital quite a bit because she has had multiple medical issues. She was born with a dislocated hip and had a hip replacement after she has many kids. She has also had bypass surgery, and mastectomy for cancer. She has cognitive problem in addition to these physical problems. Some of the children lived a walkable distance away.
Needs | Current Approaches used by Paola | Alternate Suggestions | What Could Be Created? |
1. Paola needs help calming her mother down when she would express that she wanted to go home when she was in the hospital. She would say that she wanted to go home, and you could argue with her, but she would get frustrated. | Paola made a picture book at Costco for $50, which was the story of her mother’s life. This calmed Paola’s mother down when she wanted to go home. | ||
2. Paola needs help accessing speech therapy services as soon as possible. Healthcare professionals told her that the first 6 months would make all the difference. However, there was no therapist available for 1.5 – 2 years. | Hired a private speech therapist, which was very expensive. Thankfully, her mother had a pension and her mother’s husband had already passed so they could use his pension too. | ||
3. Paola needs help dealing with the power struggle with her sisters. They have completely opposite approaches to dealing with her mother’s problems and they encountered legal conflicts. | |||
4. Paola needs help dealing with her mother’s emotions. She feels sad and cries because of her aphasia, which inhibits her ability to communicate with others. | |||
5. Paola needs help working with the caregiving institutions. The problems within the institution spilled over and got in the way of Paola’s mother getting the help that she needed at home, which emotionally upset her mother. | Paola wrote a letter and presented it to the Minister of Health and her mother received the care that she needed within 2 weeks. | ||
6. Paola needs help coordinating care with her siblings. They would agree to 12-hour shifts, but her sister would leave early, making Paola do an extra hours. Her sister stopped taking care of her mother altogether. | Paola took care of her mother along with her brother. | ||
7. Paola needs a better adapted catheter. Her mother uses one that sticks to the skin and swivels a little. The other one she uses has a band with Velcro and does not swivel. She wants one that has Velcro and swivels. | Paola sewed together the Velcro part of the catheter and the swiveling part, so that it would be best adapted to her mother. | ||
8. Paola needs help maintaining her mother’s privacy while sharing the needs and conditions of her mother to the caregivers. | Paola would take the note with her mom’s medical conditions off the fridge, but her siblings would keep putting it back up. |