The self-help group for relatives suffering from dementia, which operates in the Ptuj Retirement Home, requests that people with dementia be treated as a priority and provided with appropriate support.
The request for the establishment of appropriate protocols was sent to the decision-makers and others responsible for humane national health and decent aging: the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Slovenia, the National Institute of Public Health, NIJZ, the Representative of Patient Rights, the Association of Patient Organizations of Slovenia, the Medical Association of Slovenia and the Ombudsman of the Republic of Slovenia.
They want preferential treatment
The group for self-help for relatives suffering from dementia, which operates in the Ptuj Retirement Home, based on the experiences of relatives of the sick and employees of the Home, notes that medical institutions do not have appropriate protocols for dealing with persons diagnosed with dementia. Dementia sufferers should definitely be given priority in treatment (especially in the emergency department, when possible), and the waiting period for an examination should be limited to the shortest period of time, thereby avoiding waiting even for several hours.
Zarja Jana
The disease is very insidious and requires a lot of work with patients.
Based on their experience, the relatives note that the medical staff does not allow a companion to be with the patient when they receive a relative with dementia while they are waiting for an examination. Most of such patients are frightened in a foreign environment, disorientated, unable to communicate, unable to express hunger and thirst, they have no one with them to change their diaper or cover them, as they do not know how to say that they are cold… They only call a relative or a companion , when the doctor finds that he cannot establish contact with the person suffering from dementia.
The regulations do not allow the employee to be accompanied from the retirement home
When residents from the retirement home are referred for specialist examinations and treatments to other institutions, such as ophthalmology, cardiology, neurological, surgical, psychiatric and other outpatient clinics/hospitals, the retirement home is expected to be accompanied by a staff member.
Homes provide institutional care services in accordance with the Rulebook on Standards and Norms of Social Care Services. None of the prescribed policies define the service of “accompanying users” to a doctor or other health care provider. Therefore, the retirement home cannot provide this service, as it does not have the funds for it, and as a result, not even the staff.
Inhumane: information only on the PVC bracelet…
It is desirable for users to be accompanied by their relatives, who in most cases are unable to do so due to their obligations, and many people are also unable to provide a companion for financial or other reasons.
Profimedia
Dementia is characterized by disturbances in memory, thinking, orientation, recognition and understanding.
All users, including those with a diagnosis of dementia, immobile, difficult to talk to, etc., who cannot be accompanied by their relatives, are identified in the home with personal data on a PVC bracelet and with an attached relocation sheet, on which they describe the health condition or the reason for the relocation of the residents as precisely as possible. and attach the findings they have available. For people with dementia who are dependent on ambulance transport, the waiting time is even longer.
Appropriate protocols should be established
It is a fact that the number of people with dementia is increasing rapidly and that these patients need adapted treatment. A person with dementia cannot give an objective medical history, does not find himself in an unfamiliar environment, among unknown people, and often does not know how to objectively express his needs. “We expect the decision-makers and all those responsible for humane national health and decent old age to establish appropriate protocols for the treatment of people with dementia as soon as possible, to organize the field of accompaniment from both the home environment and institutions, and to provide qualified staff in specialist clinics, hospitals and emergency rooms personnel who will know how to approach and treat a person with dementia,” the signatories from the self-help group for relatives suffering from dementia wrote in their request.
Source: svet24.si
