When I was training as a GP, we learnt all sorts of things, as you could imagine. One of the things we learnt was to keep in mind “red flags” and “yellow flags” when a patient explains their problem.
Red Flags
A “red flag” means something about the history of a problem that shouldn’t be missed. For example, if someone has a pain that lasts all night, waking them up from sleep – that’s a significant thing, making you be quite concerned about the cause of the pain.
Yellow Flags
A “yellow flag” was rather a social, or sometimes funding issue that could complicate the situation. For example, if someone injures themselves at work and therefore all their medical bills are paid for by Workcover, then that is a “yellow flag”. What does that mean? It means that the patient’s psychology and thoughts about their injuries, and therefore their outcome/recovery, can be affected by all costs being paid by Workcover. If a worker had a bad relationship with their employer previously, of course there will be emotions tied to any subsequent injury. And the fact is, all of that complex emotion usually leads to a worse outcome.
I know what you’re saying, how does this apply to older adults?
Well, I’ve seen and heard so many older people talk about waiting for government funding to pull them out of their current situations and it similarly makes their present lives worse. For example, if someone needs help at home and they’re waiting for their Support at Home package, or other government funding, you’re basically left with two options, wait for the funding to hopefully arrive, or get help. So many people just keep waiting, sometimes even if they can get help privately.
Don’t get me wrong, if you cannot pay privately for whatever help you need, because you don’t have the money, that’s fair enough. There’s a problem. However, there are many people who do have the means to do things, who get stuck in the mindset of waiting and demanding for the government to pay, and it drags their present life down, at times even making them unwell. It’s a real trap.
Also, when they get help, they scrutinise everything so much, that being critical of how much help they’re getting and all sorts of related grievances about how they should be entitled to more, again simply engulfs their whole lives. Now I’m pretty sure that this is a personality type – the “analytic”. So, in part, this is just who they are. Someone who loves to grovel over something/anything. However, once again, the problem is if all of this ruminating about “government funding” and how they should be entitled to more, makes them psychological miserable, their situation unsafe and ultimately unwell. Again, it’s a real trap and it does happen!
My humble advice would be focus on the life you want to live at home. On the outcomes. And let how to fund that be a means to that outcome, not the outcome itself. Of course, try to access any and all the help you can get through the government system. Why wouldn’t you. And indeed, we and other people can do our best to advocate for you to get help, and follow that up vigilantly. However, with so many hoops to jump through, and queues to line up in, don’t get fixated on it. Instead move to work out what you can afford privately to do, and realistically adjust the life you want to live to reflect the life you can afford to live at home. Whatever that is. The outcome.
Once again, whatever the funding source, we’re here to help you, delivering high standards, at every step of the way.
Author: Dr Floyd Gomes