Senior care is also referred to as elder care which ideally is a distinct care process that are designed and delivered by professionals. These are designed with an aim to meet the medical, both physical and mental, needs of the seniors, especially those who want to age in their homes.
There are varied needs and requirements of the elder patients. This is a massive field that provides a large opportunity to provide a variety of services that include:
- Assisted living
- Adult day care
- Nursing care and of course
- Home care.
However, there is common misconception among people regarding elder care who often relate it to care provided at old age only. It can also include care service provided to different people suffering from different physical disabilities or diseases. In most of the cases, these people need to avail elder care services.
Need of elderly care
There are a lot of senior citizens who prefer to live in their homes with their loved and known ones who need to the look after their medical and other needs jointly. However, given the condition of today when life is fast and the demands are more, finding such time to provide such care to the elderlies is quite a difficult task by the family members.
This is where the elder care programs come in handy ensuring proper attention and care provided to the ailing elders at home.
- All these care programs are reliable, comprehensive and efficient.
- These care programs are often personalized to meet the specific needs of specific patients.
The entire program is supervised and carried on under the supervision of a qualified and certified physician where the nurse and the dedicated health manager reports the doctors about the progress and even the adverse effects, if any.
Depending on the service policy of the home health care agency, in addition to that you can also have other professional serviced included in your home care service plan such as:
- Doctor visits
- Qualified nursing care
- Diagnostic services
- Pharmacy
- Trained attendants
- Medical equipment and supplies
- Diet and nutrition and
All these services provided together will ensure better care services provided increasing the importance of elderly care.
Time when it is needed
When you age your health starts to deteriorate. This is the time when you need to take proper care of your health, either by yourself, your close ones or a professional senior care service provider.
This is the time when you will need the most care and compassion from the people around you, which, as said earlier, may not be possible by your family members due to shortage of time. Apart from the help in your daily life activities, you will also need to get the dignity of life that you deserve.
Therefore, it is primarily due to the modern constraints of time and life that warrants for professional Philadelphia Corporation for aging services. They will ensure appropriate care in your home to ensure smooth functioning and increase the quality of your life.
The ADLs
There are a few things to consider before you take on such elder care service for you or your loved one. Typically, elder care needs to consider different aspects of what is apparent such as the emotional and mental well-being of the recipient.
In order to do that the first things that you should consider is the Activities of Daily Living, commonly known as ADLs. The basic ADLs re:
- Self-feeding
- Bathing or showering
- Functional mobility
- Dressing and
- Personal and toilet hygiene
In addition to investing on a professional home health care service you may also need to invest on proper medical equipment if the recipient of the care services has impaired mobility. These accessories are specially designed that help the patients to perform their daily life activities independently.
When it comes to ADLs there are also a few other types that you should also consider, most of these may not be medical or fundamental. These are often termed as Instrumental Activities of Daily Living or IADLs. These include:
- Cooking meals
- Managing money and paying bills
- Running different errands
- Cleaning and housekeeping
- Shopping for the necessities
- Taking the prescribed medicines and
- Communicating with others over phone and otherwise.
Sometimes, you will also have to invest on a few other things to ensure that the living arrangements in your home is suitable for the older to age in home safely. This may include installing guardrails, doing the stairs and rearranging the toilet.
Facilities to consider
As it is found through research that most of the seniors like to age in their homes. However, elder care is not only provided by the professionals at homes but also provided with equal efficiency in different other facilities and settings as well.
- Independent living communities is one such type of setting where most of the older citizens like to age. These facilities are best suited for those who want to stay active and independent. One can buy or rent a home, and apartments or even in a mobile home in a community. They will get to live with other senior citizens. These facilities come with different amenities such as gyms, security, yard maintenance, a clubhouse, housekeeping, laundry service, transportation, social activities, group meals but no medical support.
- Assisted living communities are for those seniors who are still comparatively independent but need some sort of assistance in their daily activities and care in preparing meals, bathing, dressing, medication and transportation. The rooms and apartments are available on rent with group meals provided. Amenities like laundry, social activities, housekeeping and exercise may be provided in such living.
- One can also stay in a nursing home setting especially who need continual medical care and attention and constant surveillance and care with sophisticated equipment, a team of professional medical staff and suffer from suffer from chronic conditions. Most effective for a short-term rehabilitative care, these types of facilities provide a dedicated nursing staff for 24 hours a day.
You can choose any of these setting but be informed that Medicaid may pay for nursing home residents mostly but Medicare usually does not pay for any nursing home care.
