Pascale

Pascale is a 75-year-old woman who takes care of her husband who had a stroke and has heart problems. She also took care of her mother who had cancer, one lung, and had broken her hip and pelvis. Pascale’s mother passed away shortly after breaking her pelvis. Her brother has broken his hip multiple times and has vascular disease. She has also previously taken care of her father who had a bad heart and arthritis. She was a records clerk for home care and long-term care, which helped her know which services were offered to those who need additional assistance.

Needs Current Approaches Used by Pascale Alternate Suggestions What Could Be Created?
1. Pascale needs help taking her mind off the people she takes care of. She goes to work and constantly has her mind on the wellbeing of her husband, and her mother. She has sent the people she cares for to home care or assisted living, but her mind is still on how they are doing.  
2. Pascale needs help convincing and helping her husband to stop smoking because he cannot get heart surgery until he quits. 
3. Pascale needs help reminding her husband to communicate with the doctor (and Pascale) about his health. He is usually very quiet at the doctor’s. Pascale has to go to the doctor with her husband, so that she can tell the doctor what is happening with her husband’s health.
4.  Pascale is having trouble dealing with the thought of becoming a widow because her husband has a family history of lung cancer (he doesn’t have it though).  
5. Pascale needs help advocating for her husband. He tends to do whatever the doctor says, despite it not being the best for her husband. She needed to advocate for her parents when they were not getting a procedure they needed.
6. Pascale needs help understanding where the correct spot for installing grab bars in the bathroom are. She wants to install them where they will be used the most. 
7. Pascale needs help teaching her husband how to use a telephone, without him getting frustrated. He gets frustrated when he doesn’t know what to do with it easily, because there are so many functions.         
8. Pascale needs help coping with the embarrassment from her husband when she attends social events. He loses his patience quickly, is short-tempered, and irritable which are all traits that began after his stroke.   She doesn’t attend social events now.