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Essays on social security to benefit elderly
Essays on social security to benefit elderly
Essays on social security to benefit elderly
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Geriatrics is a huge change in society as the years go by. A lot of things with geriatrics are changing and one main point is housing. Where will our older love ones live? Will they stay alone in their house; go to assisted living or even live with someone else? These are the main three options any geriatrics patient has. The generation of the elderly is our “baby boomers” and they are going to keep being a big part of our society until there are no more “baby boomers”. According to Nelson (2010) “America’s ‘baby boom’ population will [be] turn[ing] 65. Just as their presence reshaped the country’s built environment in the 1950s through the 1990s, so will they reshape it over the next generation”.
Housing is a major accommodation for elderly. An ongoing problem for a lot of the elderly today is finances. Even in 2009 elderly struggled with finances because it was approximated that 12.9 percent of elderly people were at the poverty level (Bookman 2011).
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Ann Bookman says this struggle very well in his article called Families and Elder Care in the Twenty-First Century; Bookman says:
Upper-middle- class and affluent families usually have adequate funds to pay for elder care services, while poor families are usually eligible for a variety of subsidized services, such as home health care. The hardest-hit families are the working poor and those with moderate incomes, who are too “rich” to qualify for subsidized services but unable to pay for care themselves. Many families caring for elderly relatives encounter this type of “middle-class squeeze” (Bookman
Letiecq, B. L., Bailey, S. J., & Porterfield, F. (2008, August). " We have no rights, we get no help" the legal and policy dilemmas facing grandparent caregivers. Journal of Family Issues, 29, 995-1012.
When the government provides elders with medical case, they relieve the middle class from the burden of caring for their relatives, through medical bill payments. Both classes also benefit from the welfare state (social benefits provided by company employers). The federal government ensures social welfare through tax expenditures, whereby benefits are subsidized and the employer employee payments are not taxed. Tax expenditures allow the government to finance these classes without utilizing direct spending. These expenditures are costly to the government, however they make home ownership less expensive, which benefits society as a whole. Congress has tried to limit several programs, although their popularity trumps Congress’s
It is a well-known fact most Americans seniors would prefer to age in their own homes instead of moving into senior living communities. Meeting seniors where they are is a trend that will most likely affect assisted living facilites in the future. One of the main focuses from providers is being patient centerd. Meaning working with the patient to ensure that the best possible care is given. Providers are working with patients and offereing more services within their homes. Another trend that we will see in assisted living facilites is a competive pressure. According to the National Investment Center for Senior Housing and Care, competition housing is an increasing trend that is affecting living situtions for the elderly
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 deliver a variety of care to individuals with chronic, mobility and/or cognitive impairments/limitations. These providers include: nursing facilities, sub acute care, assisted living, residential care, elderly housing options and community based adult services (Pratt, 2010). A great majority of these providers are already taking care of the many baby boomers that are present today and will be present in the future. “Baby boomers” are individuals who were born between the years 1946-1964. Since 2011, every day 10,000 baby boomers turn 65 years old (Pratt, 2010). This
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...
Certain cultures that live at or below the poverty line prefer this type of assistance for their elderly family members because it allows them to have someone meet them at their home. This convenience is a big factor and provides the elderly with a way to fulfill their communal culture by living out their time at home among family, while still receiving any necessary assistance for health checks or IADL’s. This improves their quality of life by meeting their needs in a different way. These alternative methods to older adult care are more popular among minorities and cultural groups (Bookman & Kimbrel, 2011). Bookman and Kimbrel acknowledge the gap between financial status as well as culture and race, they stated, “...because elders are widely diverse by race and socioeconomic status, their families attach differing cultural meanings to care and have widely different resources with which to accomplish their care goals” (2011). Thus, creating the large gap seen in nursing home facilities. Specifically, cultures like the Chinese who maintain traditions like filial piety, in which the adult children must care for their elderly parent (Li & Buechel, 2007). This type of culture defines the line between those who view nursing homes as ideal and those who prefer a separate
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.
There are changes in the demographic as the population grows older, the number of older adult’s increases and thus, there is an increase of proportion of patients that are older adults for nurses to take care of (Wells, Y., Foreman, P., Gething, L., & Petralia, W., 2004). The nurses are there to assist and support the older adults in achieving wellness within their situation through empowering the clients (Touhy, et al (2012). Caring for older adults is important as there is an increase in population with deteriorating health. When caring for a client it is important to incorporate Jean Watson’s caring theories and Carative Factors to help influence and support the care. She encourages nurses to co-participate within the caring process by establishing unity and trust between the nurse and client. First, this paper will explain a situation in where I cared for an older adult and it will then introduce Jean Watson’s lower order needs, specifically the need for activity and how it relates to the older adult I cared for. Lastly, this paper will explain the nursing interventions I implemented to meet the lower order need, with a discussion of Carative Factor #4 relating to the client.
Roberto, K. A., & Jarrott, S. E. (2008, January). Family Caregivers of Older Adults: A Life Span Perspective. Family Relations , 100-111.
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.
With the aging population growing faster every year many families must make a difficult decision whether their loved ones should live in assisted living or nursing home facilities. I can relate because I made the decision to care for my mother at my home. Some people do not have the money or resources to care for their parent so they must live in a facility for health and safety reasons.
Although there is evidence from many studies that disability rate is declining in the U.S.2, the rapid expansion of the oldest-old age group will continue to pose health care challenges for future generations. Disability prevalence rates are very high in the oldest-old3 and even reached 97% in centenarians4. These high rates of disability will have a tremendous financial impact in the future as people living with disability have much higher health care expenditures5.
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, a government funded long term care insurance program is needed. Medicare is the federal program that provides health coverage for people who are 65 and older (Green, 2003). Although many assume that Medicare provides long-term care, these benefits are very limited and are not efficient enough to accommodate the much needed care services for older adults. For example, Medicare programs do not help pay for personal care services such as eating, dressing or using the bathroom, even though these “activities of daily life” are the most needed services for most seniors (Green, 2003).
As you can imagine, the financial cost and responsibility of caring for an aging parent are not the only demands family members must face. Most of the concerns and hardships these caregivers deal with are ways to address the needs of their parents while making sure they still provide them with the necessities. Eldercare creates a complex situation in which traditional roles of parent/child relationships are revealed. You may already be in that position or soon looking at it of being part of the 'sandwich generation', providing support for your own children as well that of your parents. Physically as well as financially.
Inside the home you have the children- who if are grown- are also under pressure to get an education, job, home of their own, and maybe even pressures to settle down and have a family. This can be added to if the child is still living at home, this can add the social stigma of not being able to make it on their own or provide form themselves. If there are parents living in the home it can be stressful on them having to make the transition from mother or father to being treated as one of the children. They can lose their sense of independence and feel as if they are a burden to the family. As you continue to look in the home you may see a strain on the marriage of the care takers. Questions such as “Why can we take in your mother but mine is getting put in a nursing home” or “your children get to see your parents every day, why can we not go visit mine once in a while?” It’s easy to see how tensions can rise and this situation can become a stressor within the marriage. Another possible side effect of becoming a multi-generation care giver is that it will take up much of your time- especially if there are extenuating circumstances such as an illness. Having to take people back and forth between doctors can use up personal day in a hurry, leaving families to decide if giving up a job is in their best interest. Since the start of the recession, the number of working women 45 to 54 has dropped more than 3.5 percent, a rough one million women, several of them leaving to care for a parent (Searcey, 2014). This, once again, can cause strain on a marriage when you lose one income and the other spouse becomes the primary bread