Home Care Helps Avoid Diabetes Complications

2.2 million older Americans—almost one-fourth of us over age 60—are living with diabetes. Diabetes develops when the pancreas can not manufacture enough insulin, or because the cells in the muscles, liver, and fat do not use insulin properly, or both. As a result, the amount of glucose in the blood increases while the cells are starved of energy. 

For family caregivers, helping senior loved ones with diabetes management can feel like a full-time job. A trained home care professional can help. _________________

Some people with diabetes are able to successfully manage their condition on their own. But for many seniors, diabetes management can be a challenge. Home care services can help! If your loved one has diabetes, a trained caregiver can assist with medication management, diabetes-friendly meal planning and preparation, transportation to medical appointments, and preventive personal care tasks. Equally important, your caregiver supports your loved one in being as active and engaged as possible—which is so important for encouraging the highest possible level of function.

A caregiver can also provide another element that might have been missing from your loved one's diabetes care regimen: clear, easy-to-understand education and instructions. Many patients walk out of medical appointments confused about the doctor's orders! A professional caregiver has the time and training to teach these procedures in a respectful way that honors your loved one's learning style.

The complications from the disease can be severe. They include serious problems such as heart disease, eye and kidney damage, high blood pressure, and nerve damage that could result in amputation.

While this is a very sobering list of complications, patients themselves have the power to reduce the potential for complications, and to successfully manage the disease. Self-care practices such as healthy eating, being active and monitoring blood glucose levels make a huge difference. This is another area where home care can help!

Here are some of the major complications of diabetes, and the solutions home care can provide:

Nerve Damage

Nerve damage called diabetic neuropathy can appear as numbness, tingling, pain, perspiration problems and bladder problems. It is caused by high blood sugar. A home care professional can help your loved one control blood sugar through special diet/meal preparation, exercise, medication management and frequent testing of blood glucose levels.

Increased Risk of Infection

For people with diabetes, high levels of blood sugar foster the growth of bacterial and fungal infections, especially common in the skin and urinary tract. The home health aide can help your loved one decrease the risk of infection by keeping the skin clean and dry, bathing regularly, and reporting to the doctor if a cut doesn't heal quickly.

Impaired Vision

While many people develop glaucoma and cataracts, people with diabetes develop them more often and at an earlier age. Over time, high blood sugar can injure the blood vessels of the eye, including the retina, lens and optic nerve. Diabetes management assistance from your trained professional caregiver can include transportation to regular eye examinations. Early intervention for eye problems will help prevent more serious problems later.

Foot Problems

While anyone can have foot problems, people with diabetes are especially prone to corns, blisters, calluses, dry, cracked skin—and serious infection is much more common because the nerve damage described above can reduce feeling in the feet. A trained in-home caregiver can help your loved one learn to pay attention to the feet, inspecting them regularly so foot problems won't worsen. Keeping feet clean and dry may also be a challenge for your loved one—another task where the help of an in-home caregiver can keep a small foot problem from progressing to a serious infection. (See the May 2008 issue of Caring Right at Home to read more about diabetic foot care.)

Heart or Kidney Disease

Diabetes makes it more likely that a person will suffer from cardiac or renal disease. A healthy lifestyle and commitment to managing those conditions is very important. Your loved one's home health aide can promote the healthiest lifestyle possible—getting enough exercise, complying with medication instructions, and encouraging regular monitoring of blood sugar. The in-home caregiver can also take care of burdensome tasks around the house, allowing your loved one to devote more energy to staying active and managing the disease proactively.

Senior home care services can help your loved one maintain the highest degree possible of independence and well-being, and provide enhanced peace of mind for the diabetes patient and family alike.

Right at Home is a national organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for those we serve. We fulfill that mission through a dedicated network of locally owned, franchised providers of in-home care and assistance services.