Aging In Place: A Case Study

The challenge America now faces is the number of people reaching retirement will double in number by 2030, and the U.S. population will increase almost 20 percent ("Our Aging Nation," 2015). The goal is for the elderly to maintain and live with independence and dignity, as well as, provide a wide range of professional health and social service expertise, home care, and residential support and services that will be needed ("Our Aging Nation," 2015). Since the number of caregivers needed for this population will not be able to meet the demands other resolutions are considered necessary.

Barry Corbet states his experience in a nursing home in his essay “Embedded.” A nursing home is a private institution for elderly or sick people who are unable to care for themselves. Corbet’s essay says “Nursing homes are environments of isolation and disempowerment” (Corbet 165). “Nursing homes are not just for old people, they can be for people with disabilities also” (Corbet 164). Both age and disabilities can be a huge factor when considering a nursing home.

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.

Hello Dr. Ullom, majority of the long term care facilities are under staffed. There is usually one registered nurse in charge to manage a 240 bed facility, with LPN's  and nursing assistance. I feel that these patients would benefit from having one RN to every six -eight patients with a nursing assistance. Not only would this benefit the patient but the nurse as well. Patient are placed in long term care facility with a certain problem, but ends up with additional condition such as UTI, MRSA, pressure ulcers, and etc. These issues are related to poor care they receive because of unstaffing. I'm not placing blame on the LPN or nursing assistance, but with a RN and low nurse to patient ratio, they will receive better care.

With home care becoming the next wave of long-term care services that will help keep Baby Boomers out of institutional programs and skilled nursing facilities, it will require a supplemental add-on support for family members or the at home caregiver as respite care and compensation for this care will have to be financially addressed. Adult day services provide the aging adult with physical exercise, social activities, and cognitive engagement. The Baby Boomers independence and acknowledgment of traditional long-term care institutions will bring change to the style and type of adult day care activities offered, as they are more engaged with technology, and at keeping themselves as active as

Mr. Henry and his wife need medical care coordinated throughout the health care system to receive proper treatment and prevent health complications, encouraging their independence by remaining in the same setting. Marek and Rantz highlight that by providing care coordination and health care services for older adults residing in specially designed senior apartments, older adults will not have to move from one level of care delivery to another as their health care needs increase; and they will have the opportunity to “age in place” (Marek & Rantz, 2000). Care coordination starts with a comprehensive assessment of each of Henry and Ertha individual needs for health and social support, and by developing an individualized plan of care for each of them. “Patients should be evaluated, and care plans should be designed and implemented according to the individual needs of each patient (American Geriatrics Society, 2012, p. 1966). As Mr. Henry and his wife health care needs increase, they can receive periodical physical examinations to monitor their underlying health problems, and for early detection of complications remaining in their apartment. This will prevent negative outcomes associated with relocation, and medications and treatment noncompliance.

One thing every living organism has in common on this planet-- age. No one wants to age or face the fact that aging is inevitable. However, since it’s impossible to beat the never ending time clock that is life; everyone wants to be as comfortable as possible when age finally does catch up with them. When the majority of people think of comfortability in old age, they think of living in their own homes and being surrounded by their loved ones. Not many individuals want to be placed into a nursing home type facility because they can’t imagine themselves being comfortable that way. Nonetheless, even though being placed in a home does take away some of an elderly person’s independence, usually the independence lost is in activities that person can no longer do for themselves. Indeed, nursing homes do have their own set of scary stories behind them; life lost, independence lost, and privacy lost, yet many of those stories are outdated. Upon investigation, it would be easy for anyone to scare themselves out of a nursing facility due to the stories that are out there. Yet, upon even further research people would be able to see how far the United States has come in their development and evolution of nursing care facilities. The care of the elderly in the form of nursing homes has faced a tough evolution starting off with a harsh past, to what nursing homes are like now, and what people can expect for the future of these homes.

Today the United States faces many challenges, challenges that mirror the changing world we live in as well as the changing dynamics of our country as a whole. There is more than a few issues on the horizon for America, and many of these issues can be tied directly to government expenditures. Not the least of which is our current position on social security spending; arguably becoming the largest Ponzi scheme the world has ever seen. However, it is the details that really accentuate the complexity and scale of this ever growing budgetary concern. In 2012 social security spending totaled 819.7 billion dollars. Making it the number two largest expense in the in our government spending structure, second only to defense by a

Long-term care healthcare delivery will be a great/popular option for many of these senior citizens. The long-term care healthcare delivery system falls within the continuum of care. The continuum of care is a series of heath care services that are provided to a great number of older adults who are in need of them throughout the course of their life/older life. The care ranges from: personal care, custodial care, restorative care, skill nursing care, and sub acute care (Shi & Singh, 2012). Different providers work together within the continuum to provide the right care to those in need. The continuum of care, as stated in Long Term Care: Managing Across the Continuum, is “comprehensive, integrated, and client-oriented”(Pratt, 2010). All the services offered should be client-based and cater to the client’s needs and suitable care. The client 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, which 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. As the future progresses and a great amount of

This would enable some individuals to remain at home longer. Monitoring services include GPS tracking devices as well as alarm devices. Tracking devices are beneficial to individuals who tend to wander. Alarm devices can be good for individuals to alert someone from a 24-hour monitoring service when they have a sudden medical emergency (“Using Professional Home Care Services,” 2012). Understanding the various resources for long-term home care can permit an individual to stay-at-home in a safe and comfortable environment.

The long-term care system consists of an integrated continuum of many institutional and non-institutional providers who deliver extended care when needed. Long-term care providers distribute a variety of care to individuals with chronic, mobility and/or cognitive impairments/limitations. These providers include: nursing facilities, subacute care, assisted living, residential care, elderly housing options and community based adult services (CBAS) (Pratt, 2010). CBAS is broken down into subdivisions, which include: home health care, hospice care, adult day care and adult day health care (ADHC). ADHC’s falls under the category of non-institutional care, allowing individuals to be independent, stay within their community, live at home, and age in place, while being of high quality and low cost. The ultimate goal of ADHC’s is to keep individuals out of hospitals and nursing homes (institutional care), and allow them to live their life comfortably, independently and in their households with their loved ones (Alteras, 2007).

Assisted living facilities offer 24-hour supervision, personalized care for each individual, social activities, limited nursing

Aging is a natural part of life. However, many people struggle to stay active in their golden years. The attentive staff at National Church Residences is committed to the health and overall well-being of their clients and residents. Their senior living community in Chillicothe, OH, has provided safe, affordable, and comfortable housing to seniors for more than 50 years. As innovative leaders in home and health care for the elderly, they work hard to fulfill the social and human needs of older adults.

The demographic of clients in the long term care delivery model has a range that starts in infants and ends with the elderly, this care also includes persons with disabilities (mental and physical). According to Hooyman (2014),”to address escalating health and long-term care costs, the locus of care for older adults and persons with disabilities is shifting from institutional to community-based settings (p.25). Community based settings would fall under the realm of assisted living, nursing homes where there would be onsite staff that included nutritionist to ensure residents had a balanced diet, physicians, certified nurse aides or medical assistants, nurses, physical therapists, pharmacy technicians, and a health care administrator, but a large portion of long term care is also carried out by family members and friends due to the financial costs associated with facility care which offsets the coverage provided by private insurance, Medicaid and Medicare. The ultimate goal is to have a positive outcome and assist the person receiving care in regaining their

The need for effective health care and incidence of chronic health conditions are expected to increase considerably with the aging of the baby boomers’ population. It is estimated that number of Americans with chronic health conditions will reach 150 million by the year 2030 (Joseph 2006). Furthermore, current long-term care facilities designed decades ago are lagging behind the legal regulation that were established, while not accommodating the needs of the staff and the clients comfortably. Some the facilities are facing regulatory challenges that emanate from the original design and intended use. Subsequently, the requirements for cost-effective long-term care facilities must be carefully considered and planned for to accommodate current and emerging needs of all stake holders. We need to redesign our facility to meet regulatory challenges, emerging technological needs and future health care needs of the consumers and other stakeholders. Successful and effective design in long-term care originates with a master plan. In this paper, I will focus on renovation of existing long-term care facility, summarize my research findings including explanation of the need for the facility renovation and summarize the research findings and describe the types of facilities and services offered in my local community, and explore the role of health care administrators in facilities planning decisions to meet legal and regulatory challenges while including the anticipated