Nursing home

The Final Year of Life

When a person is on the last, and steepest part of the downhill slope which we are all told is an inevitable fact of life, there are a lot of things which weigh on a person, as well as on the family that they are leaving behind. The final year of life is generally the most expensive, due in no small part to the massive amounts of medical care that most people receive during their final few months. Since most terminal diseases provide ample warning to everyone who is involved that they are serious and will ultimately result in the end of a life, this is something that you might do well to think about when it comes to your elderly loved ones before it becomes imminently urgent.

When the end comes, you will most likely want to be there for them, as well as for your own peace of mind. One part of this is making sure you and everyone else is well aware of the final hospital where you want your loved one to stay when the end comes. There is nothing more tragic than a person whose family cannot say goodbye properly because of a simple logistical misunderstanding. This does not just extend to your elder’s final hospital, either. Where they are living, whether with you or in a nursing home, also makes a difference to the situation.

Another concern for the final year of life is identifying your loved one’s final wishes. Make certain that this is in writing, so that there is no kind of dispute with regard to what they want in regard to property, their preferred type of funeral and the final dispensation of their remains. The more you know on the first day of the final year of life, the more you will be able to focus on what is truly important as their life slips away- remembering good times together, and grieving for what you’ve lost.

Can you Care for Them at Home?

When you find out that your elderly loved one can no longer care for themselves, you have a very major decision to make, in whether or not you are going to take care of your elderly loved one in your own home. While it has been said that the most effective decisions are made rapidly, this one might take some time to gather all of the facts in the matter. After all, taking care of a sickly, possibly disabled elder is not something that one does on a casual or part time basis. In most cases, this is a decision which reaches in to a family’s daily life, and pulls out a lot of their customs by the root. Do not make it too lightly.

Consider what happens in your home on a regular basis. Do you even have the physical space to accommodate another person, who will most likely need their own room? Putting up your elder on the couch might be okay for a day or two, but it is nowhere near a viable solution over the long term. As a matter of fact, that might actually be worse than sending them to a nursing home would be, no matter what your opinions are about nursing homes. Another question is, is your home accessible enough for a person who cannot move very well to navigate effectively?

One of the biggest parts of tending to an elderly loved one is in keeping them as independent as possible throughout the years. Most people who are disabled can still live for years in that condition, if not for decades. So if you consider it to be something of a burden to care for your loved one, to the point where you simply do not have enough hours in your day to do justice to their needs, it may be time to surrender this responsibility to the professional people who would be able to do so correctly.

Filed Under: At Home Care, Care Giving Guidance Tagged With: Home care, Nursing home, Old age

The Company of Those in the Same Boat

A lot of times, nursing homes can actually be the best option for an elderly person. And not just because of the attention that the staff can show them when they need it, either. A lot of times, people actually prefer to be in the company of other people who are in the same boat as they are, if for no other reason than to forge a sort of comraderie between them. In situations like a nursing home, at least everybody needs taking care of equally to each other. That is some kind of basis on which to forget the various sorts of relationships that we all need, after all. This is why nursing homes can be a boon to some of our elders, while not to others.

Consider cases where you have a house full of people already. If no one in your home has anything to speak of in common with your elderly loved one, you might find that any sort of relating that you do together is a little on the awkward side. Is this really how you want your interactions with your elderly loved one to be, as they at least try to enjoy their golden years? Cooping up someone with a group of extremely different people can actually be a cruel action on your part, especially if you end up leaving your loved one alone a lot of the time.

In a nursing home, a lot of people can actually forge very robust social relationships with the other inhabitants of the home. While in your home, you might be gone ten to twelve hours in the day, people in a nursing home can see each other all of the time. So if they want to sneak off in the middle of the night and conduct nursing home shenanigans, they can do so with their own crew. It’s rather like the Little Rascals, only how they would end up being today.

Filed Under: Family Support Tagged With: Health, Home care, Nursing home, Old age, United States

A Great Neighborhood can Foster a bad Nursing Home

All too often in life, the quest for what we want the most begins by identifying and listing out all of the things which we do not want at all. Among the more common of these “anti” desires is the desire to avoid living in (or even traveling through) a bad neighborhood. Because of this, we are willing to endure high property taxes, oppressive home owners associations, and very large mortgages for the relative security and peace of mind that comes out of being in a “good” neighborhood. Unfortunately, this effect is often lost, such as when it comes to such situations as the nursing homes to which we send our elderly loved ones. Whether it appears that way or not, a great neighborhood can still foster a terrible nursing home.

For one thing, the monetary situation of a nursing home in a nice part of town can be strained, on account of hiring people from that area and having to pay them higher wages and better benefits. Another reason why the money can be very tight for those kinds of nursing homes is because they may be in an area where the property taxes are oppressively high, which also forces them to cut a few corners here and there. This is one of those situations where a bad neighborhood might end up coming up better.

Consider the fact that in so called “bad” neighborhoods, the taxes are lower and the workers are willing to work for less. A nursing home which is not on a bus route might be perceived as having “better” employees (they all have to have a car, just to get to work). But functionally speaking, it may also mean that they are required to pay more money per employee, and can thus hire less people to take up all of the burdens such an institution will inevitably produce. A case such as that could make it better in the hood.

Filed Under: Nursing Homes & Hospices Tagged With: Brown University, Health, Nursing home, United States

An Argument Against Nursing Homes

This is intended as a theoretical argument against the entire concept of the nursing home system. Since some people fervently believe that the entire idea of putting an elderly family member into a nursing home is completely the wrong thing to do, it behooves us to all understand such a position and its potential merits, even if they seem ridiculous to your personal beliefs. Some of the arguments against nursing homes are that they are generally not well run, that it is the family’s responsibility to take care of their elderly and disabled members, and that society does not benefit from locking away our elders in what amounts to a sort of cage, where all of their wisdom and experience can do no good.

Nursing homes may be considered bad because for the most part, they are not well run. Generally, they are either owned by government entities which can not care for them as they ought to be maintained, or they are owned by companies which perceive their profit margins as being more important than correctly maintaining the places where we send our disabled elderly people. In cases such as these, which many people perceive as being in the extreme majority, it is a far better option for the elderly person’s family to care for them, because the family will care far more than a corporation or a government entity ever could.

Another argument against the entire nursing home concept is that it is a family’s responsibility to take care of their own. When the members of our society can not be bothered to care for their own flesh and blood, who were often the people who raised them, we have lost a significant part of our society’s humanity. As for the cases when a family can not tend to them, perhaps because there is no family, that may be a special case. But nursing homes are the last resort for the disabled elderly.

Filed Under: Nursing Homes & Hospices Tagged With: Disability, Nursing home, Old age

An Argument for Nursing Homes

Nursing homes have received a stigma which, in many cases, they do not deserve in the slightest. While some nursing homes completely deserve their reputation as disgusting, apathetic places where people go when their families do not care for them, many more nursing homes are actually well kept, respectable places where a person can receive the physical help they need when they can no longer care for themselves, and for when their families do not have the capacity to help them enough. Another reason why nursing homes can be a good idea to have around is when an elderly person would prefer the company of other people who are in a similar lifestyle situation to their own. It may be hard for younger people to relate, after all.

Many nursing homes are well staffed, well tended to and offer a high quality standard of professional care to the people who stay within their walls. They are capable of offering the elderly and disabled a standard of living which their families may not be able to, both because of space, the navigability of their homes, and the fact that a trained medical professional will always be able to extend a greater level of care than an amateur person, despite the amateur’s best intentions to do well. As well, most people’s homes are not set up to provide the kind of medical needs (such as orderly medicine distribution and oxygen) that many elderly people need.

Another reason why nursing homes are a good idea to have around is because some elderly people seriously do not want to be known as “a burden” to their families, and even because they might not feel right in the home of one of their family members. After all, people often prefer to live with other people in their own age group, not a bunch of comparative children who have very little in common with them. Nursing homes can be more comfortable.

Filed Under: Nursing Homes & Hospices Tagged With: Family Support, Medicine, Nursing home, Old age

Are Nursing Homes Wrong?

: Image via Wikipedia

A lot of people have a serious issue against the entire concept of putting their elderly loved one in a nursing home. And it begs the question that most people do not want to ask: are nursing homes, as an entire practice, an intrinsically negative or bad thing that our society allows of its people? This debate has reasonable arguments on either side of it. On the one side, some people would argue that the family of a person is the best group of people who could ever take care of them. And if all else fails, duty plus love equals a successful caretaking environment. But on the other hand, some other people would argue that in order for the care to be solid, the family actually has to care- and all too many either do not care enough, or simply do not have the means of caring sufficiently for a disabled elderly person.

Consider the notion that the family is best. Throughout history in cultures all over the world, old age has been venerated for its wisdom and strength to fight off death, as well as to survive the changes which take place in the world throughout a long lifetime. When a venerable elderly person needs help, their family should feel honored to take them in and give them the best possible care, as well as a leadership position in family matters.

Consider the notion that family often can not do what needs to be done. In all too many cases, the family is far too busy with their own affairs to be able to provide the sort of care that a disabled elderly person needs. And in some truly unfortunate cases, a family is too apathetic to the elderly family member’s needs to even render sufficient care. This is why nursing homes exist- not just to help those who do care, but to compensate for those who really could not care any less.

Filed Under: Nursing Homes & Hospices Tagged With: Elderly care, Family Support, Nursing home, Old age

Sometimes a Nursing Home is Best

When you decide on whether or not you want to care for your elderly family member in your own home, you might only be thinking from the point of view of your own desires. Keep in mind that unless they are completely demented, your elderly family member should still have a voice in the matter. And sometimes that voice will reasonably declare that a nursing home, for all of its negative connotations and scary nature, is the best ultimate path for everyone involved to take. Consider the fact that a lot of people are almost never home, and that your elderly family member might actually want to have some kind of kinship with other people who share in his or her type of plight.

Most every person in this world enjoys having other people around them, at least from time to time. Even the most introverted, socially awkward people tend to have some vein of wanting to be around others buried in there somewhere. And this intrinsic human need does not go away, even as one ages. As a matter of fact, having a small group of close, personal friends nearby can actually become even stronger as a person gets older. If those friends can more effectively spend time with the elder if their physical needs are being met by a professional staff, then a nursing home might very well be for the best.

Another occasion when a nursing home might be best is when an elderly person actually prefers the company of other elderly people to that of younger folks. Have you ever noticed that younger people tend to always be on the move, and almost never take the time to really notice the world we live in? After all, how could we, since we always have 10,000 things to do in our day? For an older person, this gap in life style can be enough of an irritation to not want to bother.

Filed Under: Nursing Homes & Hospices Tagged With: Family Support, Home care, Nursing home, Old age

What are Your Thoughts on Nursing Homes?

If you have an elderly loved one who will require a great deal of care, you have got a major decision on your hands. On the one hand, you will undoubtedly feel a lot of responsibility toward this person, who may very well have raised you. Will you take care of them in your own home for their remaining time in this world, even if that happens to be for a couple of decades? Or will you send them to a nursing home, which may feel terrible but ultimately be a better functional decision? This can be a truly agonizing, guilt inspiring choice for you to make. And while there is certainly a logical element about it, it will inspire emotions on both sides of the argument.

When most people think about nursing homes, the term “God’s waiting room” tends to come to mind. It can be a serious hang up for most people to consider putting someone they actually care about in what are often perceived to be smelly, inhumane places where the staff is indifferent (when there even is much of a staff), the administrators are dishonest (about what is actually going on all around them), and the people there would probably give anything that they ever had to get out and live their lives as independent people once again. Far too many bad nursing homes have stained the entire group of them with a foul stigma.

But on the other hand, how much better could you make things in your own home? Be honest here, and understand that while what your family does or does not do will certainly change if you take in your elderly family member, there will still be issues which are insurmountable. Also, there are also occasions in which an elderly person living amongst a group of very young people can be downright dangerous to their health. Small children often do not understand the perils of growing older.

Filed Under: Nursing Homes & Hospices Tagged With: God, Home care, Nursing home, Old age

The Decision to use a Hospice

A hospice is a sort of cross between a nursing home and a hospital, in which every patient is someone who is suffering from a terminal illness and does not have a very long time to live. When a family is making their decision about whether or not to have their loved one stay with them during their final year or so of life, a hospice may very well be a reasonable option to consider. While it does tend to be a little gloomy in the sense that most people who go in to such places do not come out alive, it can also be a much more kind option than keeping them in a nursing home. After all, there are occasions in which the family’s living situation does forbid them from keeping their loved one at home.

A hospice offers far more medical treatment options than most nursing homes do. After all, it does have a hospital element about it. Part of the positive qualities of a hospice is that it can actually prolong a life, in spite of the original prognosis, due to these more advanced treatment options. All too often, a nursing home can do little more than house the person and keep them comfortable, forcing an uncomfortable transportation process whenever any sort of treatment might be needed for their condition.

In this way, a hospice can also be far better than to attempt to take care of your elderly loved one in your own home. You most likely do not have the material resources to provide ample medical care in such an environment, and even trying to turn your home into a sort of de facto hospital setting could actually backfire, as you invest untold resources into what is ultimately a losing battle against the illness in question. At some point, you have to surrender the fight on the home front, and turn it over to the more experienced medical professionals.

Filed Under: Nursing Homes & Hospices Tagged With: Health care, Hospice, Hospital, Nursing home