You’d have to be totally oblivious with your surroundings (I know…some of our home care patients are!) not to know that it’s “Super Bowl Week.”

Many look at Super Bowl Sunday as the ‘holiday’ that lies between Martin Luther King Day and President’s Day.  Yes, there’s a movement to make the Monday after the Super Bowl an official holiday. “No Way”, you exclaim? “Yes Way”, I respond!  I look at Super Bowl Sunday, no matter who’s playing, as an opportunity to cast all diets and nutritional advice aside.  Chicken wings, nachos, a variety of meats in tube form await!  It’s fun to eat stuff that you stay away from most other days of the year.  It’s also a blast to jump around, yell and scream with abandon.  The Super Bowl is our modern day Roman Forum.  Our gladiators wear helmets, pads and lycra, not loincloths and sandals.  Let the games begin!

So you must be scratching your heads by now wondering where I’m going with this.  Should this be any different than most of my blog posts?   What does the Super Bowl have to do with geriatric home care?  Bear with me and let me take you back to those folks who are oblivious to their surroundings. Think about our homebound male patients.  Can you imagine being a guy – who in his younger days loved or even played football – having an endless stream of female caregivers interact with him on a regular basis? I’m sure that many are grateful for their care.  But, most men like to converse with other men and miss their companionship.  How can you be sure that our male patients with dementia don’t miss the company of their male friends also?  Maybe locked inside of your male patient there’s a football fanatic or someone who longs for the good old days of male bonding activities.  Even our most oriented male patients must long for these days, too!

Don’t lose sight of whom you’re taking care of.  That old sick man may have been a quarterback or tackle back in the day.  The Super Bowl has been around for a long time.  The first game was played in 1967, Green Bay Packers against the Kansas City Chiefs.  Your 80 year old patient was 35 years old that day!  Try to picture him in front of his black and white TV, smoking a cigar, nibbling on onion dip and chips and reveling in the first of many games to follow. Even though your patients may be seriously ill or in failing health, they are still in this world! Strike up a conversation about the game during your visit this week.  Ask him if he remembers where he was on that first Super Bowl Sunday or if he played football.  You’ll be treating him in more ways than just a patient!

Touchdown!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Debra Bertrand, CHAMP Facilitator