Essay on Ageing Population

Issues with long term care services include employee turnover, regulation, employee communication and especially payment for services. Legal concerns associated with long-term care are the rise of population who will eventually need it. The demand for long-term care services are going to explode as the population ages and more people are living longer with chronic conditions. But the main questions still remains, who will pay for these services and how will they be delivered? When I say this I’m referring to the actually facilities themselves, will there be space for patients when the time

The Department Of Health (2009) describes long-term conditions as chronic illnesses that can limit lifestyles. In

Current numbers show substantial growth from the eighties, and estimates suggest that the demand for long term care among the elderly will more than double in the next thirty years. (Feder, Komisar, and Niefeld) This growth will exacerbate concerns about balancing institutional and noninstitutional care, assuring quality of care, and most importantly adopting and sustaining financing mechanisms that equitably and adequately protect the elderly who need long-term care.

The Continuum of Care is the variety of health care services provided to numerous individuals who are in need of it. All the various Long Term Care providers work as a unit, helping an individual handle their disability with various health care amenities accessible. The Continuum of Care, as stated in Long Term Care: Managing Across the Continuum (2010), is “comprehensive, integrated, and client-oriented”. All the services offered should be client-based and cater to the client’s needs and suitable care. The client’s should be able to obtain services when it is needed from the provider, making it comprehensive. All the different Long Term Care providers should be interconnected between one another, because their goal is all the same. Their goal is to care for the client’s needs. The Continuum of Care consists of: nursing facilities, sub acute care, assisted living, residential care, elderly housing, and a variety of community-based services (Pratt, 2010). All these different providers work together to care for the individuals within the health care industry, creating the continuum and making it integrated. The continuum has many positive attributes, along with many barriers. The range of barriers are: poor transitions from Long Term Care setting to setting for the clients, the continuum is reimbursement-driven, it is fragmented and uncoordinated, it is under staffed with medical professionals, and there are major language and literacy problems.

Statistically, the majority of older adults require continual health care for at least one chronic condition, half of this group for multiple chronic conditions, and more than half are managing multiple prescription medications. In older adult groups without chronic illness, there is still a high demand for health care access for “acute conditions as well as for extensive preventative care services recommended by evidence-based guidelines, such as medical screenings and vaccinations” (Thorpe et al., 2011, p. 2). Education from research is necessary to address the efficacy of health care delivery within the communities nationwide, and to mitigate the disparities within a flawed system. “As this vulnerable population is expected to double by the year 2030, efforts to identify and eliminate disparities in access for older adults are among the most pressing health care issues for the 21st century” (Thorpe et al., 2011, p. 2). Ultimately, through exploration of predictive risk factors in the older adult population, along with implementation of various approaches for intervention and policy, health care accessibility for this vulnerable population can be greatly improved.

Long-term care is a variety of services that includes medical and non-medical care to people who have a chronic illness or disability. Long-term care helps meet health or personal needs. Most long-term care is to assist people with support services such as activities of daily living like dressing, bathing, eating, and using the bathroom. Long-term care can be provided at home, in the community, in assisted living or in nursing homes. Long-term care can be given at any age depending on

The Long-Term Care Act was to benefit and work with seniors to improve their overall well-being. The Long-Term Care Homes Act guarantees to help residents living within the long-term care system to receive dependable, high-quality, and safe care for the residents. It is often common for seniors to adjust when placed in long-term care as this is a new and challenging transition for the senior and their families. The commonplace goal is to have a long-term care home environment where residents feel comfortable and at home, where residents are treated with the respect they deserve, and have the proper supports and services that cherish to their particular needs for their overall health and well-being. These services are physical and mental health related services- especially one that relates to the Community Worker Program such as Community and Social Workers that are crucial in a senior’s life often.

Long-term care is a result of people having terminal conditions, disabilities, illnesses, injuries, or being elderly. The purpose of long-term care is to provide services to people and to aid people at a time in their lives when they cannot depend on themselves to maintain daily activities. There are many variations of long-term care available – such as home care, adult day care, and independent and assisted living, personal care facilities, nursing homes, and hospice.

The continuum of institutional long-term care is for patients whose needs are not adequately met in a more community-based setting. It is for individuals who need more dependency. There are two ends of the continuum of institutional long-term care spectrum. On the one end there are the individuals that may only need basic personal or custodial care (Shi & Singh, 2015, p. 399). An example of personal and custodial care can include help with walking, bladder training, or just helping with bathing. On the other end there are the individuals that may need more round the clock care with nursing or specialized services along with the basic needs (Shi & Singh, 2015, p. 399).

According to Statistics Canada, aging population has steadily increased since the mid-1960. The age of 65 and older comprised 15.7% of the country’s population. Promoting health in these aging population is very crucial to minimise the severity of health complications that might occur in the long run. Gerontological Nursing involves the care of aging people and emphasize the promotion of the highest possible quality of life and wellness throughout the lifespan (Eliopoulos, c2014 p73). Aging people need Gerontological Nurses who are knowledgeable and willing to promote health and optimum quality of life with the consideration of their core needs such as physiological balance, connection and gratification (Eliopoulos, c2014 p78).

The character Dorothy said in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, “there is no place like home” (Baum, 1960, p. 45). Sadly, many of our elderly live in Long Term Care Facilities (LTCF). The transition from living in their own homes, to living in a LTCF, can be a traumatic experience. Poor adaptation to a LTCF may cause depression, malnutrition and significantly reduce the lifespan of the elder. Thus, it is imperative, that nurse’s recognize this promptly.

Health care is a fascinating industry. So many types of care are included within the industry. Health care can be very broad or very specific. Health care is also comprised of different types of health care. One specific sector is long-term health care. Long-term care plays a huge role in the health care continuum. This paper will define long-term care and a continuum as well as discuss the services provided and how these services fit in the continuum of care, the resources that go along with long-term care and how it contributes to overall health care resources, and how long-term care services

This paper will review the many aspects of long-term care problems and many challenges there are within Long-Term care. We will look at rising costs within long-Term Care, patient abuse, will look at the quality of life, shortages of nurses and demand that the elderly are putting on the medical field. The type of care that Long-Term Care had been giving to its patients and the changes within Long-Term Care.

To ensure the best health care provided to older adults, nurses need to apply the nursing process to all their patients to reduce their hospitalization and help them live better lives. This also provides the health care provider all the information needed to plan their care. L. Lilley, S. Collins, and J. Snyder (2013) explain the importance of lifespan considerations with elderly patients, “More than 80% of patients taking eight or more drugs have one or more chronic illnesses. More complicated medication regimes predispose elderly patients to self-medication errors, especially those with reduced visual acuity and manual dexterity.” (p. 43) Considering our patients age of being over 65, special considerations are needed

Long term or chronic care includes a much broader range of services than acute care, emphasizing social as care well as medical services. While acute care is usually confined to specialty providers, the providers of long term care are more wide ranging. They include traditional medical providers such as physicians and hospitals, formal community caregivers such as home care agencies, facility providers such as nursing homes and assisted living facilities, and informal caregivers such as friends or family members.