Case Study For Elderly Couples With Dementia

One of the hardest moments for not only the person with dementia, their caretaker, and their family, is deciding the appropriate time to relocate to an assisted living facility or a skilled nursing home. Like the variety of the disease symptoms and durations, the question of when to accept outside help also has different answers depending on the situation and the caregiver’s abilities and resources (Smith, J., 2016). Many caretakers may view the idea of placing their loved one in a home as a sense of failure on their part; however, it does not have to be this way. With the increasing demand for assisted living facilities and nursing homes, improvements in the standards of care for dementia patients as well as a shift towards more “patient-centered

For this paper, I have decided to research two social work theories and how those theories apply to residents in long term care facilities. The primary focus will be those residents who are alert, oriented, and showing minimal symptoms of dementia.

Long-term care or nursing home was used by someone requiring help with physical and emotional needs, etc. The role of informal caregivers like family and friends are to help those less fortunate than themselves. In the past, there were several generations living under the same roof of the informal caregivers. (Pratt)(2016), “There are several types of services that makeup the institutional and nonistitutional care.” (p20) (Pratt)(2016), “Institutionalized cares are mainly the nursing care, assisted living care, subacute care and housing services because these are in a facility.”

How the Long-Term-Care Homes Act makes their goal possible is by having the participation of mutual respect for all of the residents, the resident’s families/friends,

The report proposed the introduction of a Dementia Care programme, proven to increase the quality of life by supporting them to increase standards of care and patient outcomes.

The goals of this case study are to gather empirical evidence through comprehensive research to make an observable difference in the spouses caring for their loved ones with dementia. The problem spouses are facing while providing care for a loved one stricken with dementia can be overwhelming. First we assessed the quality of life in spouses caring for loved one with dementia. Second we wanted to provide concrete tools for the spouses who are the caregivers for loved ones with dementia. Thirdly we wanted to educate and instruct on improving quality of life for the spouses.

Long term care includes a variety of services offered to elderly people as well as individuals of any age with physical disability and chronic illness to meet their medical and non-medical needs for a period of time (Marchildon, 2013).Long term care homes range from assisted living in homes to residential homes which is for people who depend on help from care givers to perform daily tasks. The long-term care is the one in which caregivers play a role as family and friends to the residents so as to give a reason to keep on living and keep them healthy indirectly by fighting depression from sadness and loneliness. A lot of seniors need family to advocate for proper care according to the movie, the remaining light (2011).Long term care is not

Conclusion:None of the old age care home are giving separate attention to person with dementia, even they are not aware that few of inmates in their

It can be very difficult caring for a patient with dementia. Most caregivers are unaware

Choosing a long-term care facility can be very difficult because of incidents of abuse and/or neglect reported against care facilities can be overwhelming. For example in “Ending Elder Abuse: A family guide”, Diane Sandell lists many elder abuse incidents from her files such as: neglect of decubitis ulcers led to infection, sepsis, gangrene, and death. Facility failed to provide necessary diabetic diet; improper insulin administration, insulin overdose; dehydration and death. Resident left alone in chair in shower room fell, became paralyzed from neck down. Many reports of pinching, rough handling, slapping, yelling, threats (2000). It is believed that abuse is most likely to occur if the caregiver not only finds the work difficult but also (1) works full time, (2) cares for young children, (3) is poor, (4) feels little affection for the older person, (5) finds the elderly person very difficult, and (6) gets no support or help from others (Macionis, 2005). Although there is no excuse for abusing elderly Americans, it is still very prominent in today’s society. Diane Sandell explains in Ending Elder Abuse, that her 91 year old mother was beaten by a long-term care facility employee in the middle of the night for reasons unknown. It is stated that her mother died 6 weeks after the incident, unable to recover mentally from the abuse (2000).

Taking care of the individuals that are getting older takes many different needs. Most of these needs cannot be given from the help of a family. This causes the need of having to put your love one into a home and causing for the worry of how they will be treated. It is important for the family and also the soon to be client to feel at home in their new environment. This has been an issue with the care being provided for each individual, which has lead to the need of making sure individuals have their own health care plan.

The findings from the research in India of dementia caregiver strain clarify the impact of dementia on caregivers by comparing economic and psychological status and perceived strain with those of co-residents of older persons from the control groups free of dementia and of caregivers and co-residents of an older person with moderately severe depression. In Goa, dementia and depression cases were by vignettes, whereas, in Chennai, it was recruited from a hospital outpatient department. Caregiver mental health was assessed using the general health questionnaire. During research, Caregivers of people with dementia spend significantly longer providing care than did caregivers and co-residents of depressed person and controls. The highest proportion

There have been problems within Long-Term Care and many of these abuses were turned over to the patients, there was hardly any direction on how to handle Long-Term Care. “Poor houses and Almshouses and developed in response to an impoverished, aging, and

The older adult population in the United States has steadily increased thanks to technology and medical advances. While this definitely is an undeniable achievement, it also creates some challenges that society was not as prevalent to face before. Now that people are living longer it’s also means that often times family members are becoming caregivers to their loved ones during their so called golden years. Not only may it be difficult to care for a loved one, but it also becomes even more burdensome when their loved has a disability. In fact “dementia is one of the major causes of disability and dependency among older people worldwide.” (2016). Fortunately there are adult day centers that serve people with dementia and provide services that can benefit them. However many times caregivers are forgotten about and aren’t provided services that can also benefit them as well. While it does take a bit of pressure off of the caregivers while their loved ones are at the day center, it does not eliminate all the other effects. Many people may not be aware that there are detrimental effects that a caregiver may experience as a result of caring for someone with dementia.

For instance, the women that I have helped live by themselves without support for their families. The U.S. Census Bureau indicates that between 80 to 90 percent of care comes from spouses and family members (Sherr & Ellor). Spouses and family members have loving and trusting relationship that allows the elder family member to appreciate the support that they are providing them. Furthermore, Pope Francis states, “The elderly need the care of family members – whose affection cannot be replaced by the most efficient structures or the most competent and charitable healthcare workers” (Harris). However, taking care of a loved one becomes a burden and family members try their best to provide support. It is a challenge for a caregiver to help their older family member and take care of their own family. In some cases, they forgo their personal lives to care for their family members. The high stress levels and low options of support can lead to abuse or neglect of the older family member. Especially if the elder family member’s health is not increasing with the service that their family is providing them, then that family member is going to get frustrated and not continue to help their elder family member. Thus in some cases, families will send their parents or grandparents to nursing homes and senior citizen homes for care and they may be abused by their nurses or