認知症対応型グループホーム A (Group Home for dementia care A)
Up until now, I have been saying whatever I wanted without giving any thought to management. I have not taken into consideration things like staff salaries or resident fees, so I think many of my ideas may seem rather out of the blue. However, I think it is a serious drawback for the elderly care field that young male staff who have just entered the profession, as well as senior staff who have changed careers to become care workers, often quit shortly after joining the facilities. It seems that...
So far, I have been talking about the care workers’ side. As for the residents of group homes, I think there are many aspects that need to be prioritized. However, as I mentioned in the section on the visiting home-help service, the first issue that comes to mind is how to support elderly people with dementia who live alone. I think that under the current long-term care insurance system, it is nearly impossible for elderly people with dementia who live alone to maintain healthy lives in the...
In a group home, the residents and staff come together to form a community of about 14 or 15 people, so it is only natural that there will be a variety of personalities. Therefore, in a group home like the one where I worked at the time—where all the staff were veteran housewives and highly capable—it may have been relatively easy for many of the housewife staff to work. However, for the residents, most of whom were women, that environment was not very comfortable, and I honestly felt it...
So, in my opinion, the ideal group home would first ensure enough staff members on each floor to provide thorough care. I think it would be best to have at least three staff members—and ideally four or five—on duty during the daytime shifts from early to late. It is true that it may be desirable for all staff to have strong caregiving skills, but it might not be very interesting if everyone is equally skillful. From the residents’ perspective, it may actually be less boring to have some...
There were several things that had bothered me at the facilities where I had worked. What bothered me the most was the blatant atmosphere among the staff on the floor, especially the floor leaders, of marginalizing or excluding colleagues whom they personally disliked, myself included. I believe it was quite common for newly recruited staff to quit early because the floor staff considered them useless or simply did not like them. I myself often left at an early stage, but in my case, I was in...
What is my ideal group home? As mentioned earlier, I had worked at several elderly care facilities, including three group homes. The companies and organizations that ran these facilities seemed to have very different philosophies about elderly care. I also felt that the floor leaders and staff who interacted directly with the residents had very different thoughts and ideas about the kind of facility they wanted to create. Based on my experience at several elderly care facilities, I would like...
In the end, I worked at this group home for nine months, from February to November 2017 (Heisei 29). Of the three group homes I had worked at up until then, this one was intermediate in many aspects—it was neither particularly good nor bad—and I do not think it left much of an impression on me. However, I do not think that having nothing special is necessarily a bad thing in elderly care. I had always felt that many elderly residents with dementia would prefer a very ordinary, everyday...
Reason for resignation To be honest, I do not remember exactly why I decided to quit. I was supposed to qualify for the care manager exam while working at this group home. However, the eligibility requirements were set to become stricter starting with the 21st exam in 2018 (Heisei 30), and in my case, if I did not pass by the end of the year, I would lose my eligibility for a while. Therefore, I really wanted to pass by the end of the year, and I think one reason I quit this job was that I...
Night Shift Tasks 17:15 · Check the communication notebook and the unit log, and review residents’ vital sign records · Review toileting records and escort each resident to the restroom 17:30 · Lead residents in swallowing exercises before dinner · Check the laundry while residents are doing their exercises · Place rubber sheets on the beds of certain residents while they are doing exercises · In the kitchen: If there is fish for the next day, place it in the refrigerator to thaw and...
Day Shift Tasks 9:15 Clean the sink and replace the dish towels · Place used dish towels in the bucket in the kitchen Check the communication notebook and review residents’ vital signs 9:30 Check the medications on the floor during the night shift staff handover Mop the floor after the early and night shift staff return · Add two caps of disinfectant to an orange bucket of water (enough to cover the white part) · Begin mopping from the kitchen · Mop in the direction of the wood grain,...