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Friday, October 12, 2012

Human Touch.....the best medicine

Well, due to travels and work, the blog has been inactive for almost 3 months.  To our loyal followers, I apologize....but we are back and plan to be more active for your enjoyment!  Please continue to email your stories to be featured in future editions of the blog!

This week's story is about the Human touch and how important it is.
As caregivers, we are often touching those in our care, but in a "administrative" way.  Helping them from place to place, feeding them, changing them, providing medicine.
But it's important to remember those in our care, especially those with special needs, don't always get the warm human interaction that we all want and need.

A warm hug, a hand held and rubbed, a pat on the back are all things that we can easily and constantly give to those in our care.
We often think about how much we value those in our care, but they don't always get the human interaction they need.  Sometimes because they cannot speak.  Sometimes because they cannot reach out.
So it's up to us, as caregivers to make certain we are interacting verbally as well as physically, to bring happiness to those we care for.

A short story about our own situation.  Taylor, has been in and out of decent health the past few years.  And with her long and painful hospital stay in the past year, she had an increasingly hard time sleeping (and still does).  She was so afraid to go to sleep as when she was ill, she was constantly awakened by painful shots and procedures.  For months, if we even walked into her room to check on her, she would be startled and panic until we could calm her down.

Recently, when she was struggling to get to sleep, her little sister (9 years old) decided to help her.  She climbed into bed with her to watch TV and cuddle.

Within moments, Taylor had slid over to cuddle as best she could, and in minutes, she was sound asleep!  The simple act of cuddling with her and making contact allowed Taylor to feel safe enough to fall fast asleep. And remain that way for a good eight hours.
Human touch, and in a kind way, is one of the BEST remedies for those we care for.