Taipei, Sept. 5 (CNA) A free online support system that aims to improve the quality of life for dementia patients and their migrant caregivers was launched in Taiwan on Tuesday.
The system was jointly created by the Taipei City Hospital Dementia Center and One-Forty, a non-profit organization that offers free Mandarin and vocational courses to migrant workers.
Using One-Forty’s existing social media network of migrant workers in Taiwan, the support system provides them with a manual and videos on how to take care of people with dementia, as well as a platform for all to engage in exchanges and to share their experiences.
There are about 320,000 people who have dementia in Taiwan, and about 20 percent of them are cared for by a migrant caregiver, said Kevin Chen (陳凱翔), One-Forty’s co-founder, citing data published by the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
However, 69.9 percent of caregivers who have taken care of dementia patients felt “stressed out” and 59.7 percent said they had no way of learning how to look after their patients, Chen said, citing a poll conducted by One-Forty.
The system is a great place for migrant caregivers to interact and share their experiences and for One-Forty to gather their opinions and learn from their experience so that the manual can be expanded, Chen said.
Sifah, an Indonesian live-in caregiver whose job is to take care of an elderly woman suffering from dementia, said she often had to coax the woman or tell her white lies to get her to work with her through her daily routine, such as bathing, urinating, and eating.
Liu Chien-liang (劉建良), the director of the Taipei City Hospital Dementia Center, said dementia patients often exhibit abnormal behavior at the disease’s later stages, such as staying up throughout the night, which could put a burden on caregivers and cause friction between them and their employers.
Liu recommended using the “STE2P” method when dealing with dementia patients: “Smile,” “Thanks,” “Eye Contact,” “Embracing the moment,” and “Patience.”
Smiling and making eye contact with dementia patients are key to developing an amiable relationship, while “thanks” involves caregivers thanking care receivers often for cooperating with them, and asking care receivers to thank them for taking care of them.
“Embracing the moment” means caregivers should go along with any whimsical thoughts or behavior that patients might have at any given moment and try to work around the situation to get their jobs done.
Caregivers, family members, and healthcare professionals should realize that their “enemy” is the disease, not the patient, and work with the patient to combat dementia, Liu said.
The support system not only targets migrant caregivers but also their employers, Chen said.
The tutorial and videos are currently in Chinese (https://bit.ly/44qGrVX) and Indonesian (https://reurl.cc/My71vm), but One-Forty plans to release Filipino and Vietnamese versions by 2026, Chen said.
