One of our clients is in her mid to late nineties, living at home independently. I met her when she was in skilled nursing care because she had a heart arrhythmia that was causing passing out episodes.
Last year around April, she wasn’t sleeping well, she was stressed, anxious, and talked a lot about how she was out of energy. She was even experiencing chest pain which caused us to go to the doctor. Her doctor asked her if there was anything stressing her out.
She was embarrassed to admit that it was her taxes that were causing her so much stress. She didn’t know what she was supposed to turn in and the whole thing was very overwhelming for her.
This year, I wanted to make sure she felt no stress around taxes. I gathered all her paperwork and then headed to the pharmacy to pick up a report of her out-of-pocket drug costs for the year. I took everything she needed to her accountant’s office.
She already feels better. In a lot of ways, we’re treating her cardiac and stress induced anxiety with nonmedical management of her day-to-day life. To be able to do this for her requires a lot of touch and understanding of who she is, what issues she has, and how we can help. Knowing and supporting our clients holistically helps us keep them healthy, not just physically and mentally.
-Ryan
