Home Care Argumentative Essay

“Alzheimer`s disease is called a family disease” (ALZlive), because it impacts every family member who is slowly watching a loved one decline. Alzheimer’s disease has an impact on caretakers because caregivers can lead to a variety of emotions, from guilt to anger. When dealing with a client who has Alzheimer; caretakers have a huge responsibility, which can cause stress or depression. If the caretaking is a family member it might lead to finical problems, which can lead to the hard and controversial decision of putting someone in a nursing home, that is better equipped. Guilt is the main emotion that a caretaker can express “I have never spoken to my mother`s doctor, it occurs to me that other children of

When I was five years old, my grandma quickly progressed into showing signs of alzheimer's and as the days went on it progressed into a very serious case of alzheimer's. As they discussed in their presentation, it was difficult for us all to deal with this situation but, even more so for me since I was so young and I simply could not understand why my own grandma could not remember my name anymore. I wasn't angry or guilty like they discussed in their presentation, I was confused and upset despite the number of times my parents tried to explain to me what was happening to my grandma. Consequently, this had an impact on our family which is why I think it is really important to talk about dementia and the effects on a family. Undoubtedly, it is difficult for the person displaying signs of dementia to go on living life as their health worsens over time, but it is also important to educate families on how to deal with such a difficult part of

Medicare, the federal governments health insurance program, finances acute medical care for nearly all elderly Americans over the age of sixty-five. However, very few long-term care services are covered. Medicare finances long-term care only partially through it’s limited skilled nursing facility (SNF) and home health benefits. “Despite recent growth in spending on these benefits, much of the SNF and home-care paid for by Medicare remains short-term rehabilitative care, often related to a hospital stay or outpatient procedure. Medicare covers SNF care for up to 100 days following a hospital stay of at least three days. For homebound persons needing part-time skilled nursing care or therapy services, Medicare pays for home health care, including personal care services provided by home health aides.” (Feder, Komisar, and Niefeld) All that is not covered, the elderly are expected to cover with savings, private insurance policies, and financial support

A nursing home isn’t the only option when a family member has trouble cooking, cleaning or caring for himself or herself. In home assisted living allows seniors to continue living in their homes with a little help. Since 2002, BrightStar of Northern Michigan has provided home caregivers who offer a variety of home care services, including skilled nursing and dementia care. The Traverse City, MI, home care provider explains how these services can benefit the entire family.

(Geewax, M. 2012). The fact that many people are living longer today than they ever have in history is increasing the overall cost of caring for family members in this traditional environment, and making it nearly impossible for the United States and American families to keep up with rising cost. According to the current statistics provided by AARP, the average person will spend about 2.44 years in a skilled nursing facility. With these estimates, the cost of providing skilled nursing care for just one parent is at about $190,588.00 dollars. Medicare covers about three percent of this cost in total or approximately $5700.00 dollars split over just first one hundred days. Medicare pays at one hundred percent the first 20 days. Then with Medicaid, the general rule of thumb is all personal holdings such as savings, properties and retirement funds must be expended prior to applying for the program. The one exception to this rule is owning a property the parent can apply for Medicaid with the understanding that their home will be sold and the proceeds of the sale going to the state. Additional cost are offset with social security, most facilities will allot forty dollars a month out a residents social security benefits then apply the remainder to the amount to the monthly bill. The remaining balance would then be the responsibility of the resident, resident’s family or Medicaid

Action for Social Justice for those Aging-Out of the Care System There is a need to acknowledge that youth who age-out of the Government care system in British Columbia, at the age of nineteen, are inadequately supported. These children have already undergone much pain and suffering due to abuse, neglect or abandonment by their parents. Many of these children spend years within the care system, often demonstrating emotional, social and behavioral issues, which tends to lead to multiple placements. Many of these youths have various medical diagnosis and demonstrated behaviors caused by the abuse, neglect and abandonment, not only from their family of origin but the multiple placements and dysfunction that they have experienced in their young lives. These issues do not disappear at the age of nineteen.

Currently, Medicaid is the premiere funding machine for long term care services. However, Medicaid is a needs based program. In order for an individual to qualify for Medicaid they must be in an financial situation with a very low yearly income. Therefore, this program only covers a fraction of elderly people within the United States at the very beginning of their long term care journey. The only option for individuals who do not immediately qualify for Medicaid is to pay the full cost of these long term care services. These costs can range an upwards of $90,000. An average American will spend around 3 years of their life in a nursing home and the average retirement savings of a family in 2013 was $163,777 (Morrissey, 2016). Therefore a majority of individuals will ultimately deplete their savings and ultimately have to rely on Medicaid and other welfare programs to pay for their long term care and

Although, according to Williamson, “many caregivers adapt quite well to their role” (Williamson). Before my pap started losing his memory, I didn’t realize how hard it was to watch a loved one with this disease, let alone care for a patient with Alzheimer’s. According to an article that explains a few coping strategies for caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s disease, “caregivers of people with dementia experience high rates of clinically significant anxiety and depression” (Cooper). This article explains various emotion-focused strategies, problem-focused strategies, and dysfunction-focused strategies for those caring for a person with Alzheimer’s. An experiment was conducted on caregivers of patient who have Alzheimer’s that explains which of these strategies were

In the pamphlet Basics of Alzheimer’s Disease, the Alzheimer’s Association adds late onset, traditionally known simply as Alzheimer’s, targets primarily people 65 and older. The disease follows a series of steps from mild decline with little noticed changes to very severe cognitive decline where the final stage of the disease is in progress (Basic 19-21). Throughout the stages, independence becomes lost and family members will become care takers and in the later stages nursing homes or hospice may be needed. One book encourages the care giver to communicate through body language, tone, and written instructions to help alleviate as much stress as possible for those living with Alzheimer’s (Living 47). The book further adds when caring for a person with Alzheimer’s remember to maintain patience and to show respect .

After Alzheimer's is diagnosed in a parent, or other elderly family member, the caregiver has the task of deciding what the best form of care for the patient is. In order to do this they have to fully understand what the disease is, and

I have since developed a deeper understanding of others’ feelings and a compassion for the elderly. Since Pop Pop’s passing, my great aunt on my mother’s side has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. This previous experience with Pop Pop has only prepared me for what will happen to her. Her Alzheimer’s is not the same as his, but the patterns in their behavior is very similar. Recently, Aunt Betty has begun rereading the sympathy cards she has been receiving for her husband’s death over and over, as if she forgot that she just read it. Pop Pop would reread the same two entries in his old WWII journal for the same reasons as Aunt Betty. Both of them would hide important things to prevent people from “stealing” them, such as Aunt Betty’s hearing aids and Pop Pop’s wallet has been missing in action for the past three weeks. By predicting these patterns in behavior, I am able to provide additional moral support and understanding for my mother and her family now. Seeing someone who is so important to you is taxing emotionally, and it is helpful to have someone understand each individual situation.

As a counseling professional, I would start by telling both, Catherine and Linda that Alzheimer’s is a very serious disease. “Alzheimer’s

In February of 2000, I lost my grandmother to Alzheimer's disease. She was diagnosed with the disease just less than two years prior to her death. Throughout that time, I watched changes in my grandmother that made her seem like an entirely different woman to me. She gradually began losing her short-term memory and we began to see signs of her long-term memory degrading too. It began to get harder and harder to take her out into public without being afraid of what would happen next. Her emotions would fluctuate with the changing of each minute it seemed. Physically she became weaker and weaker and would often scare us with falling while she would be walking. Eventually she had to be moved into the

Just the mere mention of “nursing home” causes most people to shudder and think, “I would never put my relative in such a ghastly place.” There are a great deal of horror stories that stem from nursing homes, most along the lines of , “ My mother was neglected after I put her in a nursing home. I would go to visit her and she would be lying in urine and have a new bruise, different than the one that was there last time.” There seems to be this popular perception that nursing homes are places where aging people go to wait out their final days and die; this causes many individuals to shun them. People are too caught up on these negative stories they

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.