When you or a family member becomes disabled, which complications do you prevent first, which subsidies can you apply for, and what about school, work and guardianship?
Tips from this section that apply in the United States.
In a person with a spinal cord injury, part of the body's alarm wiring is cut. A full bladder or tight clothing may not be felt at all, yet blood pressure can shoot up. The warning signs are a sudden severe headache and sweating. When that happens, first help the person sit up straight, loosen any tight clothing, and check whether the bladder is full, and call 120 (China's ambulance number) at the same time.
A long-term follow-up at two spinal cord injury centers in the U.K. found that the suicide rate in this group was 5 times that of the general population. More than 90% of the suicides happened in the first ten years after the injury. For people whose injury was itself a suicide attempt, the risk is higher still.
A caregiver breaking down is not being overdramatic. A study in the U.S. followed more than 800 older adults for four years. Among those who cared for a disabled spouse and also reported that they were mentally strained, the risk of death was about 60% higher than for people who did not give care. Caregivers who did not feel strained did not show this rise. So what to watch is not the caregiving itself but the long-term strain.
Among nursing-home residents who used pressure-relieving cushions, pressure sores over the sitting bones were clearly fewer than with an ordinary segmented foam cushion, but when the tailbone was counted together with them, no difference was seen. In the trial everyone was first fitted with a well-fitting wheelchair, so the wheelchair itself should also be fitted to the person's size, not just bought as a generic model.
The Advertising Law (《广告法》) is blunt. Ads for medical services, drugs and medical devices may not guarantee results, may not state a cure rate or effective rate, and may not use people giving personal testimonials. So claims like “stand up in three courses of treatment” or “so many people have recovered” are themselves illegal ads, and there is no need to study the principle they describe. Anything that is not a medical device may not even mention treating disease.
After a stroke, people admitted to a stroke unit with organized care are more likely to be alive a year later and still able to live at home. But don't add extra on your own either: practicing earlier, more often and more within 24 hours after a stroke led to worse outcomes at three months. How much to practice, and when, is for the rehabilitation department and the therapist to say.
The claim that “wearing hearing aids prevents dementia” has not held up so far. A three-year trial of nearly 1000 people showed no difference overall. A difference was seen only in the subgroup whose risk of cognitive decline was higher to begin with. So the reason to get hearing aids is to hear right now, to talk with people, and to hear cars when crossing the road, not to protect your brain decades later.
