Should Elderly People Continue Living in Their Own Homes?
It one of the hardest decisions we have to make in our lives — yet at some point, nearly every person will have to address it. When your elderly mother or father’s health declines — either physically or mentally — is it safe for them to continue living in their home? Should they move in with a family member? Or do they need 24-hour-a-day care that can only be provided by an assisted living facility or a nursing home? Here is an example of a common scenario:
Rebecca and her husband live 500 miles away from her 82-year-old mother, who is suffering from early signs of Alzheimer’s Disease and chronic arthritis. She worries about her safety, but upon questioning her mother, the answer is always the same: “Everything is fine. Stop worrying.”
Then one day, while at work, Rebecca received a phone call from a hospital social worker. Her mother fell down the stairs, broke her hip and was hospitalized. Rebecca’s mother insisted it could happen to anyone, and that she was perfectly safe at home and able to take care of herself.
It’s a common scenario, says Pamela Braun, MSW, LCSW, CPF, of Geriatric Assessment, Management & Solutions. When questioned about their situation and needs, an elderly person may mask the truth from family members says often the adult children find out what’s truly going on from a third party – such as the hospital or a neighbor.
Home represents familiar comforts, self-sufficiency and privacy. That’s why the prospect of moving out, into a relative’s home, or an assisted living facility, is one of the most difficult decisions a person must make in their lifetime. Often, rational decisions take a back seat to an emotional choice.
In situations like this, the difficult task of determining whether the elderly person can safely remain at home must be addressed.
To read the full article, go to http://www.agingcare.com/Featured-Stories/95665/How-to-Determine-if-Your-Senior-Parent-Can-Stay-at-Home.htm.
For more information on healthcare and caring for an elderly senior, visit www.agingcare.com.
Marlo Sollitto is the editor of www.AgingCare.com. Agingcare.com is a website and online forum for people caring for their aging parents. As the Facebook for caregivers, Agingcare.com lets those caring for aging parents communicate with each other, get answers from elder care experts and access news, information and products related to caregiving. For more information, visit www.agingcare.com or call 239-594-3202.?
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2 crazy old people fighting on the street outside mayday hospital in croydon. The old lady margaret is no longer with us. rip.
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The Use of Geriatrics EMR
Geriatrics is a field of medicine which is usually interchanged with the medical practice on adult medicine. This, however, is a bit different than adult medicine as this is more focused on taking care of the health of the elderly people. This field promotes health, prevents diseases, and treats illnesses and disabilities among older adults. So, it this field of medicine is related to adult medicine; you might wonder why it is important to have a certain dedicated geriatric EMR for it.
A geriatric EMR is needed to be separated as there are records and features which are designed for the older adult patients. This application is totally different from that of an adult EMR because there are certain sicknesses that are only found among the older adults. With this information in mind; geriatrics should have a totally separate EMR application so that the records would be more specific and easier to deal with. This should be done as the target patients are on a special list and they do need more attention with regards to their needs and wants.
With our elderly patients, certain details when it comes to their special health condition issues needed to be recorded in a good application. Geriatric EMR is one application that is especially designed to update files, store files, and record new files regarding the common diseases that the elderly people acquire such as diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, and other illnesses. This electronic medical record designed for them can help lots of medical practitioners serve our elderly people in better ways more than one. They can easily retrieve data from a centralized database as long as their network is connected to it.
Now that the application has been proven to be of great help, then before you buy a certain geriatric EMR application; you should make sure that what you are buying is a proven application by not just a few but by lots of other medical practitioners who use the program. You would want to help those elderly people so when availing of such application, you should make sure that what you are trying to buy is something that can be really dependable. It is not just your license at stake here but the well-being of those elderly patients you look after too.For more information visit to our site at http://www.acrendo.com
Stephen Janssen began as medical professor who’s also known in writing different articles pertaining mainly to Health Services. Having been in the industry for more than two decades, he has gained reputation and even works as a consultant to Public Health Service patients.
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DURHAM, NC (PRWEB) March 25, 2006
Research published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society found that elderly women are more likely to quit smoking than elderly men, while results are just the opposite for studies among younger populations.
“Smoking cessation was also observed more frequently among elders who had recently been diagnosed with cancer. In addition, the rate of recidivism (resuming smoking) was only 16 percent among the elderly smokers who quit, whereas previous studies report relapse rates of 35-45 percent,” says head researcher Dr. Heather E. Whitson of Duke University Center for Aging. “These findings indicate that older smokers may quit smoking for different reasons than younger smokers.”
The study did not directly assess the smokers’ reasons for quitting, but the authors postulate that factors such as lack of transportation, poor financial situation and dementia might contribute to smoking cessation in older smokers. Regardless of reason, the cessation of smoking may lower the risk of death, even when it occurs at an advanced age. The seven-year death rate among non-quitters in the study was 51.6% compared to only 44% among the quitters (although the difference was not statistically significant).
The Association for the Advancement of Retired Persons (AARP) conducted a survey of its members to find that only 39 percent of smokers had been advised by their physicians in the past year to stop smoking. Physicians may assume that older smokers are unlikely to give up one their few remaining pleasures. However, the Duke data suggests that further research is needed to understand the unique motivations and potential benefits of smoking cessation in the elderly.
This study is published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. For more information on this topic and to read additional patient-friendly summaries of articles in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, please visit http://www.healthinaging.org/agingintheknow/research.asp.
Media who would like to receive a PDF of the study please contact medicalnews@bos.blackwellpublishing.net.
Heather E. Whitson, MD is currently a fellow in the Division of Geriatrics at Duke. She is also on the Program for Women in Medicine Committee, the Internal Medicine Resident Recruitment/Selection Committee, and is a Tutor at Duke for the Evidence-Based Medicine Conference. Media wishing to contact Dr. Whitson for more information or for interview can e-mail her.
About the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
Published on behalf of the American Geriatrics Society, the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society’s main goal is to publish articles that are relevant in the broadest terms to the clinical care of older persons. Such articles may span a variety of disciplines and fields and may be of immediate, intermediate, or long-term potential benefit to clinical practice.
About the American Geriatrics Society
The American Geriatrics Society is a nationwide, not-for-profit association of geriatrics health care professionals, research scientists, and other concerned individuals dedicated to improving the health, independence and quality of life of all older people. For more information, visit http://www.americangeriatrics.org/.
About Blackwell Publishing
Blackwell Publishing is the world’s leading society publisher, partnering with more than 665 academic, medical, and professional societies. Blackwell publishes over 800 journals and, to date, has published close to 6,000 text and reference books, across a wide range of academic, medical, and professional subjects.
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Question by Zocuisa: Why do people with ALz Dementia “hoard” and pick up things and sometimes can’t help taking small items?
Why do some people with Alzheimer’s Dementia “hoard” or collect things either from the streets/garbage bins or take from other people’s stuffs(without permission)—most of them, they don’t even use or need? What can be done to help them stop or at least diminish this behavior? Thanks.
Best answer:
Answer by Elyse N
Im a demetia care specialist so i see LOTS and LOTS of this.
Its sad disease…you really need to understand it. Basically someone with alzhiemers, the brain is literally shrinking! therefore parts of their brain are just gone, and they are unable to get that back. Usually they go back to stages in life where they have the mental capacity of a 4 year old.
So think of a 4 yr old…4 yr olds like to “take things” and play with small things…and think EVERYTHING is theres correct?!? maybe even 3, whatever! But there really isnt anything you can do as in “training” them not to do that because they are loosing their short term memory. Someone with TRUE alzhiemers has ABOUT 6 minutes of memory depending on the stage they are at. So if you were tro train someone with alzehimers, they would forget it.
the best hting you can do is give them other things to play with….We have alot of “kiddie toys” like Play-dough, puzzles, coloring books…things like that to keep them stimulated. maybe if you see them hoarding something replace it with something else they can keep busy with like a puzzle. Remember, they are like a young child…usually they need to keep busy.
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Drexel Hill Time
AES Seniors
