HELLO AGAIN FROM THE OMBUDSMAN PROGRAM! We are hoping that everyone is staying healthy and getting ready for autumn leaves and pumpkin spice! This month we wanted to refocus to talk more about how needing long-term care might impact someone’s ability to exercise their normal routines or preferences and how you can prepare for the future with some fun questions.
This often means sitting down with a resident and discussing their likes, dislikes, and things that bring happiness and consistency in that resident’s everyday life.
Many times, residents have a clear understanding of what is important to them, but sometimes it is a question that they have never really thought about. Questions about preferences and routines are valuable in a long-term-care setting so that the people who are caring for you can get to know you quickly and make you feel at home. However, the same questions can be used to get to know your loved ones even better, and you might just have fun learning new things about people that you care about.
So, in the interest of getting the conversation started, here are some questions to get your discussions about the importance of daily routines and preferences started. Below you will find a few questions and my truthful (and slightly odd) answers:
Q. How and when do you wake up?
A. I am usually awakened every morning by my dogs because they want to let me know that my alarm will go off in 15 minutes.
Q. What bedtime rituals/routines do you have?
A. Every night before bed, I help my spouse make the coffee, fill the water cups on the nightstands, and “check” the house. Most importantly, I touch our breaker box nightly just to make sure it feels like it is working (no scientific evidence that touching the breaker box reveals anything about its functioning).
Q. What is your favorite food and what is your least favorite food?
A. My favorite food is macaroni and cheese, and my least favorite food is pickled beets.
Q. What is one thing that can keep you up at night?
A. If I am worried about something or if I don’t have the ceiling fan on.
Q. What is your favorite movie that you could watch repeatedly?
A. My favorite movie would have to be “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
Q. If you went to a nursing home tomorrow, what is the first thing you would want the staff to know about you or your preferences or routine?
A. I think the very first thing would be, don’t talk to me when I first wake up because I can’t promise I will be friendly.
Okay, so a few of my answers are a little silly, but also true. However, I hope you see how just a few of these bits of knowledge might help a caregiver provide more person-centered care to me if they just met me and took the time to ask a few questions.
Try this at home and see if you learn anything new about your loved ones, friends, or family. As always, if you have questions or concerns about anything related to long-term care, you can call us! The Ombudsman Program can be reached at 419-259-2891.
Megan Benner Senecal is a member of the Ombudsman Office. ✲
One of the many things that Ombudsmen do is advocate for the rights of residents to have their preferences honored in the care-planning process.
