Both home care and caregivers play a crucial role in the health care of older adults. With an aging population and the potential of soaring healthcare costs, home care and caregivers provide effective and efficient lower-cost care. For instance, home care helps to resolve issues that the Canadian health care system is facing, including long wait lines for placements and procedures, misuse of hospital beds and shortages of long-term care beds. Further, research continues to demonstrate that when home care is properly managed and integrated into the health care system, the health and wellbeing of many seniors and their families are improved, resulting in fewer hospitalizations or stay in long-term care institutions. Home Care Ontario estimated …show more content…
Moreover, in 2011 approximately one in every six seniors relied on home care in order to remain safely at home with independence and quality of life. Despite the continuous growth in the use of home care, funding has remained the same or has even decreased, depending on the province. Canadians are currently faced with a shortage of affordable and accessible home care as a result. The federal government needs to address this major issue in order to meet the needs of our aging population, many with chronic health conditions. Without any action, one in every six senior will encounter physical and financial challenges in trying to access affordable home care. By not being able to access home care, more seniors will have to rely on hospitals for assistance, which is far more expensive and far less efficient. In fact, over 86% of Canadians agree that senior’s care, including home and community care, should be top priorities of the federal …show more content…
Introduce a federal policy to ensure national standards for home care • Minimum standards for home care should be established in which all provinces and territories must meet in order to ensure quality and equity. Standards should be created on factors such as: home care eligibility, public coverage of services, residency requirements, the application of income testing, the range and volume of services, client payment of equipment and drug use and access to services. • Home care should be expanded and receive an increase in funding in order to ensure rural area needs are met. Currently, funding only account for 4% of public health expenditures. This leaves far too much of a financial burden on caregivers • Pharmacare should be expanded upon for home care receivers 3. Provide better education and training for home care providers • Invest in better education and training for home care providers, especially for personal support workers by creating national education standards. Improving education and standardizing personal care education may lead to increases in
Mollie is the patient in our case study. Mollie lives with her daughter and son in law, both in their 70’s. A home health aide assists Mollie five days a week for three hours each day. At age 94, Mollie is an older adult, considered to be part of a vulnerable population, at risk for hearing, visual and mobility deficits. This at risk population can experience changes in cognitive or physical status making the activities of daily living difficult to perform (Meiner, 2011). As people like Mollie age, gradually becoming less able to function independently, their grown children, potential caregivers, may be preoccupied with the demands of their own lives and not prepared to care for an older
According to Statistics Canada Report 2013, “life expectancy in Canada is one of the highest in the world” and it is expected to grow, making the aging population a key driver to our health-systems reform. By 2036, seniors in Canada will comprise of twenty five per cent of the population (CIHI, 2011). Seniors, those aged 65 years and older are the fastest growing population in Canada. Currently there are approximately 4.8 million Canadians aged 65 or greater. It is projected that this number will increase to 9 to 10 million by 2036 (Priest, 2011). As the population get aged the demand for health care and related services are expected to increase. Currently, the hospitals in Ontario are frequent faced with overcrowding emergency departments, full of admitted patients and beds for those patients to be transferred to. It has been reported that 20% of the acute care beds in the hospital setting are occupied by patients that do not require acute hospital care. These patients are termed Alternate Level of Care (ALC). ALC is “When a patient is occupying a bed in a hospital and does not require the intensity of resources/services provided in this care setting (Acute, Complex, Continuing Care, Mental Health or Rehabilitation), the patient must be designated Alternate level of Care at that time by the physician or her/his delegate.” (Ontario Home Care Association, 2009, p.1).
Another focus for change is that over the years the demand for home and community care over hospital care has continued to grow, as stated by the Queens nursing institute “Recent health policy points to the importance of improving and extending services to meet the health and care needs of an increasingly older population and provide services which may have previously been provided in hospital within community settings”.
Long term care facilities are for patients looking for 24 hour care, these are sometimes referred to as nursing homes. Providing safety and quality of life with nursing as well as endless supervision. Long term care facilities are held through profit or non profit organizations. Long-term care facilitates are generally classified by ownership: Proprietary (for profit) meaning owned by individual or corporation and run for profit. Religious, meaning owned and operated by a religious organization, lay/charitable meaning owned and operated by a voluntary, non governmental and non religious body. (non profit). And others would be municipal, regional, provincial and federal. “Ontario carries 17% For profit facilitates, 46% government owned, 18% not for profit, and 19% Religious facilities for long term care. That is a 48.4% rate of not for profit homes with a 51.6% rates of profit organizations” (Banerjee, An Overview of Long-Term Care in Canada and Selected Provinces and Territories). Through the whole of this research paper, the terms will be grouped looking through for profit facilities and not for profit facilities of Ontario. This paper also has the intention to promote the need for maximizing priorities in long term care facilities as they lack the funds needed to fully produce the mission of quality. “Take away the public relations spin and it is clear that even the for-profit association admits that cutting on food and staff costs, and charging higher fees is the practice to maximize profit taking from the homes. Conversely, municipalities are pouring funding into the operational budgets of the facilities to improve care. Non-profits fundraise to provide activities and amenities. They act ...
The quality of the home care must meet the essentials of the patients or service seekers. But it never means to fulfil the basic needs or requirements of the individuals who are seeking the service. On the other hand, if the home care is not able to meet the basic needs of the patients then this is important to analyse the certain reasons behind this (Janamian, et. al., 2014).
...derly at work places and at home will improve their mental and social wellbeing. The aging population will affect every single citizen in Canada. Not one citizen wants a raise in taxes; however, if there is not any strategy setup to combat the aging population issues, Canadians will see raises in taxes causing frustration. Implementing these strategies will not only keep the elderly happy, but it will keep them healthy. The healthier an individual is, the less medical expenses, so why not get started on investing on this project which can save citizens several tax dollars. The results obtained in the primary research reinforce the support of the strategies presented. Majority of the participants understand the possible economic and health care issues the aging population will bring, thus getting started on this matter sooner will be beneficial for Canada’s future.
Upon growing older there are many decisions to be made. Among one of the most difficult and perhaps most important decisions is where the elder person will live and how long-term care needs will be met when he/she is no longer capable of doing so independently due to the incapacity that accompanies many with old age. Nursing homes seem to be the popular choice for people no matter the race, gender, or socioeconomic status with 1.5 million Americans being admitted to them yearly.[3] Because nursing homes are in such a high demand and are not cheap, $77.9 billion was spent for nursing home care in the United States in 2010 alone, they are under criticism of many professions including the legal profession, which is in the process of establishing elder law as a defense to issues with in the elder community. Nursing homes have a duty to provide many things to the elderly including medical, social, pharmaceutical, and dietary services so that the individual may maintain the highest well-being possible.[4] Stated another way 'a nursing facility must care for its residents in such a manner and in such an environment as will promote maintenance or enhancement of the q...
African American senior citizens face a health care crisis too. They have worked all of their lives to secure retirement, but their retirement has been threatened because of the rising cost of long-term medical care. Insurance companies have failed to provide affordable long-term care, protection that most senior citizens need. This lack of long term care and affordability has been a serious problem for the health care system. In some cities, the shortage of hospital beds is so serious that it is common for patients to stay in emergency rooms before they can be admitted to an inpatient room (Drake 109). More than one thousand hospital beds are occupied by people who could be better care for in nursing homes or through home health care (Drake 110). Of the disabled elderly 1.3 million reside in nursing homes (Drake 10). These patients are unable to perform two or more of the basic activities of daily living without assistance.
Nursing homes who receive federal funds are required to comply with federal laws that specify that residents receive a high quality of care. In 1987 Congress responded to reports of widespread neglect and abuse in nursing homes during 1980’s, which enacted legislation to reform nursing home regulations and require nursing homes participating in the Medicare and Medicaid programs to comply with certain requirements for quality of care. The legislation, included in the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987, which specifies that a nursing home “must provide services and activities to attain or maintain the highest practicable phys...
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.
Implications for Nursing Practice, Education, and Research. Home Health Care Management Practice, 6, 534-537. doi: 10.1177/1084822304266500
Bonnie, thank you for presenting your views on how Bright Road could potentially benefit from implementing a Home Health Care System, by focusing on the opportunity to be a leader in this type of care, while providing incredible services to its patient population in the convenience of their home, and at the same time relieving such burden to family members. The strengths of your recommendations rely on your argument that this is a phenomenal opportunity for economic growth, due to the expected increase in the number of individuals needing this service by 35% within the next couple of years; as well as the opportunity to serve other age groups due to the advances in technology now available. You clearly state the potential risk involved
Today, world’s population is aging at a very fast pace and United States is no exception to this demographic change. According to the U.S Census Bureau, senior citizens will be accounted for 21% of the American population in 2050 (Older Americans, 2012). Although living longer lives may not seem like a negative sign, living longer does not necessarily mean living healthier. Older adults of today are in need of long-term and health care services more than any generation before them (Older Americans, 2012). Because of the growing need for senior care, millions of families are facing critical decisions on how to provide care for their parents. In addition, declining birthrates may cause people to have less familial care and support as they age. To be able to provide the necessary care for senior citizens government funded long term care insurance program is needed.
Furthermore, the National Quality Forum (NQF) and the National Priorities Partnership (NPP) and have developed best practices in order to align with the National Quality Strategy (NQS) (Nash et al., 2012). This is outlined in of 5 different areas; Health Care Home Practice Statement, Proactive care plan and follow up, Communication, Information Systems and Transitions (Nash et al., 2012). The Health Care Home practice statement states that the patient should be given the chance to choose the Home Health Care Home that gives the finest chances to grow their rapport with health care providers (Nash et al., 2012). The Proactive care plan and follow up states that health care providers ought to have prearranged and efficient structures, strategies
3). Many elderly people rely on family members to take care of them but this is becoming less common (Siegal & Rimsky, 2015, p.2). In addition, many boomers have no idea how much money they should have saved to support their intended lifestyle after their retirement and medical expenses are not always taken into account (Barr, 2014a, p. 2). Boomers who may need long-term nursing care may not have the financial means when the time comes, and this can create a threat to Medicaid programs (Barr, 2014a, p. 2). Furthermore, Edlund, Lufkin, & Franklin (2003), states that “Medicare has been the traditional healthcare insurance for the elderly” but was never designed to pay for long-term care and custodial services (n.p). It has become evident that the national approach to long-term care, which relies on unpaid family caregivers and Medicaid coverage for nursing home care is not enough to satiate the needs of the baby boomers (Siegal & Rimsky, 2015, p. 3). Many older adults prefer home and community-based care to nursing home care, and while the average cost is lower in a home setting than in a nursing home, the majority of Medicaid money is spent on long-term services in nursing home care (Siegal &