so what do you think about caring for older folks Dale
well i think um the elderly is a really neat population to care for
uh-huh
they've got a lot of special needs
and at the same time
um
majority of them don't want to give up
the independence that they have
right very definitely
and so you've got a real balance to make there
uh-huh
what about you
well i'm thinking about it more in terms of my parents that are starting to get old They aren't really that old but they are sort of wearing out My mamma is a dialysis patient
um-hum
and she is only about sixty four but she's had some pretty close calls and my daddy has to drive her to dialysis now
and so she's phasing out and but she's also a very very very independent person
and doesn't like having having people
uh not being able to do things for herself when she wants to
uh-huh
uh
i know they certainly don't want to be in a nursing home but my daddy keeps talking about it i don't i couldn't possibly couldn't never see him in a nursing home
and my grand daddy also doesn't like wouldn't want to be in a nursing home he's ninety
i think right on ninety right now
oh really
and he's living by himself My grand mamma died a couple of years ago
oh okay
so but he's you know as long as you can have the families take care of the people i'd like to see them stay at home
yeah but it gets hard my my grandmother is in her mid eighties
uh-huh
and she's uh suffering from a low uh well uh progressive Alzheimer's disease
uh-huh
so she doesn't remember anybody
right
and
uh she remembers things but they are things back whenever she was real young
right
and so with she was living by herself but my uh uncle has moved in with her to take care of her
and it's creating a lot of problems
right especially for your uncle i bet
oh yes yes
now a friend of mine who was studying social work here in Philadelphia worked for an adult day care program for mostly for patient's with Alzheimer Do they have anything like that in Dallas
in Dallas um yeah i've i've heard of several things and they are really neat programs to be able to do if you can link up with them
but sometimes it's hard to either find the connections to get them in or uh to be able to get them there for the day program and pick them up
right So they are pretty limited
right
oh another interesting thing another good friend of mine who got her degree in social gerontology
well had a job for a while where she went around to
to folks and had them sort of kicked them in the pants to make them take good care of their older relatives
oh really
to make sure that they would take care of their responsibilities
um-hum
i don't think that was mainly with Alzheimer's patients but just patients people in general who were not as independent as they use to be
um-hum
um-hum
well it's it's it's a really day care programs are really neat you know and if the people if the people are able
and and can get up and move and everything like that that is one of the best things to do but i think the hardest thing to do is whenever you've got a person who's mentally very alert and active
and their body just hasn't kept up with them
uh-huh
right
and i think that's in a way somewhere some an area where some of the day care uh programs have left off
because you really kind of have to be a little bit mobile to be able to do those
uh-huh
right
to uh get there and to participate in the activities
right
cause i know there's one not too far from from me here in Dallas uh and they have ceramics and pottery and needle work
right
and sports
right
but if your vision is gone
and you have arthritis real badly
that's true You can't play those things
yeah you can't do it
but you can sing songs and uh
well that's true
tell stories about the old times i guess you know you were talking about you're was it your grand mother
uh-huh
that was having Alzheimer
uh-huh
uh being able to tell old stories You can perhaps get a group of people that aren't too far along with Alzheimer talking about the old times and enjoying it themselves that way
and they love to recollect i mean they just you know and they will just go on and on with these stories and they have such a memory
do they like to listen to other people recollect though
my grandmother doesn't she she wants to tell to tell you about her story over again so
right
which is fine you know so
well that is good because we
