Occupational Therapy

Big Nasty

Looking for some help / advice in relation to a family member.

She has pretty severe arthritis and is in a wheelchair the last ten years since she broke her leg in a fall. She's a pretty heavy woman and gets zero exercise and as she's getting on in life now the situation is becoming a little more difficult.

She hasn't left the house in 3.5 yrs now and over the last six months she's began to lose the power in her legs. She can no longer make it in and out of her chair without help. More recently she has found her arms becoming weak too and over the last few weeks she's been suffering from swollen feet.

Obviously the woman needs to see a doctor but she refuses to leave the house and tells everyone that she can manage. The family have tried to coerce and persuade and even force the issue - no joy.

We're hoping to get her to agree to an occupational therapist to come to the house and assess her but aren't too sure where to start. We need someone who can take a look at her situation and advise on home aids but also assess her medically and tell her what needs to be done, i.e. get herself to a hospital.

Before anyone says it she won't agree to getting the 'Doctor on call' out - that's already been tried.

Anyone recommend someone in the Dublin area that could help?

looksee

How is she getting in and out of her chair, getting into bed etc, who is helping her? If she is heavy she needs professional help to move her, it sounds as though she is getting to a stage where she will need a hoist. Is there a family member helping her? How long before that person does him or herself an injury moving her?

If someone else is risking their health moving her then that begins to override her preferences. My suggestion would be to go to the gp and ask him/her for advice, possibly with the result that a district nurse will come in initially to start the ball rolling. You may need to get other members of the family to cooperate in making it clear to her that lifting her will soon not be an option.

Big Nasty

The husband is doing it and yes, that's our fear that he'll do himself an injury. He also had a form of cancer in 2013 that near killed him but seems to be in remission now. I'm afraid that the stress of all this will bring it back sooner rather than later.

looksee

I doubt there is a great deal you can do in that case, beyond try and persuade the husband to try and get help. If he is not prepared to go against her wishes you cannot really do very much unless there is a crisis. He is the one who would be any way entitled to look for help, if you could persuade him to allow you to go with him to talk to a medical professional, that would be a start. But if they are both determined to go on as they are then I think they will just continue until one of them needs emergency intervention.

This is only my personal opinion. I think you can only try and persuade one of them to co-operate. However even then you should not get into a campaign of nagging and adding to the husband's stress, he needs support rather than being given out to.

Big Nasty

They won't be swayed on the doctor unless there's an emergency but I'm pretty sure we could get them to agree to an Occupational Therapist.

So I'm looking for a really good OT with medical qualifications that can take a look at her and tell her that she needs a, b & c and also needs to get herself to a hospital to be properly assessed and see what can be done for her to make her life easier going forward.

RainyDay

Might be worth contacting https://aoti.ie/Default.aspx