In Sharon’s nomination of Margherita Srihari, CNA, she explains that in addition to caring for her mother who has advanced Alzheimer’s, Margherita also provides support to Sharon’s special needs sister. Read their story below to learn how Margherita balances care for both women.
Nomination Letter
Written by the client's daughter, SharonAfter repeated disappointments with several other agencies and caregivers, we could sense this was going to have a different outcome from our initial interview coordinating a plan of care for our mother and sister with BrightStar Care. In our first meeting with Margherita, she immediately reached out to make verbal and tactile contact with our blind, wheelchair bound, advanced Alzheimer’s mother.
Although our caregiver’s primary responsibility is the care of our mother, this individual needed to also include our special needs adult sister in her daily responsibilities. This exceptional characteristic of Margherita’s personality – to treat both our mother and sister as individuals, each with their own needs – is one of the many qualities she possesses above the other caregivers we worked with before.
We expressed that our ideal caregiver would mesh with us as a family member – respectful of our daily routine and our home. Margherita treats our mother as she would treat her own, even calling her ‘Mom.’ She is meticulous with Mom’s skin care, patient with the often-tedious task of feeding, and energetic when providing repeated cycles of physical and music therapy to our mom and sister.
Our mom and sister have a co-dependent bond which Margherita recognizes, respects and utilizes in her interactions with both of them. Even with Mom’s deficits from Alzheimer’s disease, she still senses the positive energy of having our sister nearby, an element Margherita reinforces with the joint activities she incorporates into their daily routine.
Margherita’s care affects not only our mother and sister, but also impacts our whole family by giving us comfort knowing they are receiving quality care. During her shift, she works attentively to anticipate and meet the needs of our mother and sister. She has learned many of Mom’s non-verbal cues like when her nose itches and needs to be rubbed, when she is going to sneeze, when she is still chewing food and not ready for a drink, and various others.
Margherita recognizes the importance of verbal stimuli from the caregiver, other family members, TV programs our mother used to watch, as well as music. In an attempt to engage what may be that day’s fleeting moment of mentation and connection, Margherita plays songs of an entertainer our mother may have seen in concert or from a play or movie or heard at a dance club. She encourages our sister to participate, as our mother often connects with our sister’s voice/touch; this also boosts our sister’s morale because she is being helpful in Mom’s care.
Along with verbal stimuli, Margherita strives to provide multiple short cycles of assisted physical activity with range of motion exercises. These activities help limit the development of contractures and increase muscle tone for Mom. And for our sister, who is overweight, this serves as physical activity and helps to induce muscle strength for gait balance, improved mobility and, ultimately, fall prevention.
Many caretakers escort clients to appointments or field trips for shopping, dining or a social event. We have the luxury of an enclosed, in-ground heated pool, a bonus for our sister as she enjoys swimming. When our mother and sister had to give up their home and independence to move in with another family member, efforts were made to give them a feeling of having an element of control of their life/living situation.
Then Covid occurred and altered everyone’s routines. Our mom and sister lost their weekly sessions with physical and occupational therapists who provided warm water therapy and outside-the-home personal contact. Margherita takes our sister into the pool once a week, allowing her to enjoy one of her favorite hobbies. The time they spend in the pool listening to music, doing water aerobics, free floating and playing games is a highlight in our sister’s week.
Since Alzheimer’s has limited our mom’s verbal skills to a few words a day, we look for other cues signaling her comfort status. Things such as compliance with simple requests, relaxed body posture, attentiveness while feeding, engagement in attempted physical and music therapy sessions. Margherita is able to connect with our mother in varying degrees, depending on the mentation status of our mom in that moment. She doesn’t get discouraged if she doesn’t get a positive response, but instead tries the activity again later.
Change in routine and the ability to accept/include new individuals have always been difficult for our sister, but with persistence and patience, Margherita has become part of her ‘circle of trust.’ No activity or interaction is too trivial or beneath her to engage with our sister. These non-judgmental qualities make Margherita an exceptional caregiver.
Her reliability to show up on time for all her assigned shifts, in good spirits and ready to work is a tribute to her professionalism. Our family recognizes and appreciates Margherita’s ability to set the needs of our mother and sister above any personal needs. Her willingness to stay that extra five minutes at the end of her shift to make sure all tasks in the plan of care have been completed and that all our mother’s and sister’s needs have been met is one of her traits that reinforces to our family that they are receiving quality care.
Margherita’s belief that the relationship she has with her clients and their families and the care she gives aligns with her attitude to treat people with the dignity and respect you would want your family to be treated with.