A few years ago I read about an innovative way of helping caregivers understand the challenges faced by geriatric patients. It was a suit that forced the wearer into a stooped gait and added weights to slow that gait. There were gloves to limit digital dexterity, constraints to limit range of motion, goggles to simulate various problems with vision, ear muffs to deaden sound.
The idea, of course, is to encourage empathy for geezer clients. I wonder how widely these are used. You can see one HERE.
When our old friends (he is our age; she is maybe ten years younger--a veritable spring chicken) were her for supper, we got to talking, as one does, of the challenges of aging. I began to tell them about the geriatric suit . . .
Then I realized--I'm in the suit!
Well, not entirely, But bad hearing and compromised gait are daily realities. My fingers still work on a keyboard, but my vision isn't as sharp as it once was.
Could be worse. And probably will be, before it's all over.
4 comments:
Exactly what I was thinking. Who needs the suit any more? 😀
I wear that suit constantly.
As part of the training to deal with geriatric patients, we also had to perform tasks...most of which I can no longer do at all! Thread a needle. Pour a small paper cup of water. Write a legal sounding sentence. Find a flaw in a woven or crocheted fabric...etc. All while in cotton gloves, goggles smeared with vaseline, and of course the earphones. They didn't include what fun it is to work with joints that give pains...legs that don't work as well...balance which is wonky. But hey...we're here, now, and enjoying each other's rants!
I think when I was teaching there was mention of training involving suits to understand autism. But I know what you mean because when I wake in the morning it takes sometime for the leg and hip joints to work properly.
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