Process Essay: How To Teach The Elderly

The elderly population in the community has some areas that they need to overcome to be a successful learner. The limitations of the teaching and learning identified the following barriers.

Individuals with dementia find it difficult to understand words and meanings and forget what is being said even while we are speaking. Communication is more difficult if they are tired or upset. You may find they repeat questions frequently as they cannot remember asking them. When talking to an individual who has any form of dementia ensure that you speak clearly and face the individual. Make sure there are no distracting sounds. Maintain eye contact and remain calm and pleasant. Use simple sentences and words always giving the individual time to understand.

As a carer it is important how you come across to a person with dementia, they still have emotions and feelings. Your body language and facial expressions can be picked up on by the individual, if you let out a long sigh or raise your eyebrows or have a nasty look on your face then this will be abusive to them and they won’t trust you. Talk to them in a calm manner, hold their hand and smile at them, this will show the individual that you have a caring attitude and they will be better for it. If there are other people in the room who are maybe shouting or talking and laughing then this could cause a problem communicating with the person with dementia, too much noise will only frustrate the individual as they won’t be able to concentrate on any conversation.

Nurses and family members need to speak slowly and clearly, in a low pitched voice, maintaining an open friendly communication manner and also using eye contact and touch. Speaking slowly is very important as it allows patients who can’t have a conversation to understand you better, patients with dementia take longer to process information and sentences, so speaking style such as emotion, sound volume and what you say can be the difference between a patient with dementia understanding you and not. It slowly allows the patients enough time to take the words in and process the sentence. Speaking clearly and in a calm voice will help reassure the patient and help them cope with following your words. Speaking clearly and calmly will help relax the patient. A nurse should avoid speaking sharply or raising their voice, as this may distress the person even if they can't follow the sense of your words. Low pitched voice is used to calm the patient and not bring about any distress or frighten them. Low pitched tone can be used to sooth the patient if in any distress. Gaining eye contact with a patient is very important, if they are sitting down kneeling down at there level can be of benefit so they no you are there. This allows the nurse to get their attention and help them focus on the conversation without scaring them. Maintaining eye contact while speaking with the patient can also be of benefit. Love and affection can

The use of language is important, when talking to residents you need to keep things simpler than if you were talking to residents without dementia, however if you’re talking to an adult using very simple instructions this may seem patronising, it is important to choose your language carefully.

This assignment will evaluate two examples of activities which as a teacher will be embedded into the delivery of training to health and social care staff who work in the field of dementia.

An individual’s background can influence their communication methods in many ways. Such as the way someone has been brought up, their different values in life, their relationships with family members. These can all be a factor to how they communicate with others. These factors can effect communication because if their relationships have been quite hard and they do not see their own families much, the individual will find it difficult to trust and open up to the care managers at the nursing home. This will make it hard for the care managers to get to know the real them and it will be difficult to recognize any problems that appear. Also it depends what the individual’s medical history is. They could be on a type of medication which effects there communication. They could suffer from having dementia or a stroke, there for this can effort your communication massively. With all three factors you might have to use simple sentences or even using picture cards as the individual might find it easier to understand what you’re

The two major health components covered in this class was physical health and social health. Physical health “refers to the way that the body function.” This definitely consist of regular exercise. Since the class was mainly consisted of strength training exercises, it gave older adults strength and energy. This can play a major role in preventing some illnesses. Social health is the quality of one’s relationship with his/her friends and family. I feel like the instructor was also trying to get older adults to work together during the exercises. I saw older adults helping each other out when it came to stretching. This would be a good class for older adults to attend if they wanted to meet new people. The

For these new students to be successful in this situation, what needs to be addressed is the types of older adults will be attending this institution. Most people view the length of life as successful aging, yet it is the quality of the life that is important. Baltes mentions in his article, “Aging is a very individual and differential process with regard to mental,

Talk with your friends and family, consult with the senior's physician, and get acquainted with those who have had first-hand experience either working or living in a nursing home.

Australia is one of the successful multicultural country. There is also a great number of elderly that came from culturally and linguistically diverse background. The population of elderly in Australia are increasing every year. According to Australian Bureau of Statistics (2015), the proportion of the population aged 65 years and over increase from 11.8% to 14.4% over 20 years from 1994- 2014, it is projected to increase rapidly over the next decades. As of June 30, 2014, there is an increase of 118, 700 of 65 years and above people over the past 12 months that represent the 3.6% increase in population (2015). 4 out of 10 Australians aged 65 and over (37%), were born over overseas in 2014 this is according to Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2016).

I realized that I had made generalized assumption about the elderly age group. However, I came to know that elderly people are also well informed and are cooperative. I also felt that I was over cautious about my accent. After talking to the instructor, I understood that I would have been able to help Mrs. X to understand my accent by talking slowly and clearly rather than by asking my friend to ask questions of my part. I also learnt that some difficult questions could be asked in better way by substituting the tough term with other simpler terms.

Mr. Trosack is a 72 year old man who fell down a long flight of stairs a month ago, underwent a total hip replacement and is in need of a discharge plan. He completed two weeks of rehabilitation in the hospital for his hip as well as diabetic teaching for his new onset of Diabetes. It was also discovered during this hospitalization that he needed to start taking medication for hypertension. Both he and his family are in denial about what it will take to get him home and deliver the care that is needed.

As people age they develop many special needs related to the later period of life. Many elderly people have specific physical needs where adaptations to their home are necessary or where they need specific equipment for self care. Old age also brings new emotional challenges for the elderly person when the family can be useful in helping to meet the persons mental health needs. Senior citizens experience needs in their social life; they also experience the need for activities with other seniors. Health needs also negatively affect the elderly and cause multiple physical problems. Every elderly person experiences needs that are related to each of these areas.

there are also a number of factors you need to consider. Be respectful when trying to get their attention,for example,use a light touch on the arm. If they lip read they need to see your face,so speak clearly at a normal pace and tone.You may need to repeat things so being patient is key.