A Rough Past : The History Of Nursing Homes Essay

After reading The Age of Dignity by Ai-Jen Poo, I realize that she brings out many good concerns and information about where our country is heading in the upcoming years. Throughout her book we discuss our golden years and the care that we should be able to receive and how crucial it is for our personal wellbeing, independence, and securing our own futures. The 85 plus age group is one of the fastest growing demographics in the US and Poo talks about the possible solutions that need to be created in our infrastructure before we have an even bigger crisis on our hands. It’s a fact that the elderly baby boomers cohort is growing faster than we can care for them, this shows that we need to implement a new system that will be able to care and support our many elders in their life, and how we can do it with financial competency and dignity.

However, many residents yearn to go back to previously known environment such as their homes and living their lifestyle. Many residents perceive they are stuck or trapped in a nursing home due to the lack of autonomy (Choi et al., 2008, p. 539). Many nursing

When you hear the words, “Nursing Home”, what comes to mind? Sad, helpless, elderly individuals? The smell of urine? An overall, unpleasant place to reside in? Unfortunately, this generic description is accurate amongst majority of the nursing home facilities across the United States. More often than not, the elderly suffer from inhumane living conditions while residing in a nursing facility. Quite often we hear stories on the news about cases of elder abuse in the nursing home and we automatically think physical, mental, or emotional abuse from caregivers. However, the fact that these individuals are also living amongst unsanitary, inhumane conditions, and ran by a staff that includes

In Being Mortal, Atul Gawande painted a little depressing picture of the realities faced by the elderly in the US nowadays: declining health status, economic insecurity, and loss of independence. It seems once the older people move into nursing homes or assisted living facilities, they lose autonomy, dignity and privacy as the institutions are not able to fully individualize care. Even though the situation has been improving, it still shocks me to see how unhappy some of the elderly are in these circumstances. Realizing senior care facilities often fail to address all aspects of well-being, I would like to explore the issues of promoting both objective and subjective component in quality of care for the older people.

The elderly are our foundation and our youth are the building blocks to our nation. Some elderly have no medical problems, some are autistic, and many are handicapped. Nursing homes are a place where the elderly can live when

There comes a time when the hands that supported you when you stumbled, shiver. The ones who taught you right from wrong depend on you to make the correct choice for them, a choice that can alter their entire being. One bad judgment call and your loved ones could end up as being victims of nursing home abuse. Thus, when you’re deciding a health-care facility for them, don’t settle for anything but the best because many lose their loved ones every year as a result of the abuse.

By 2060, ¼ of the United States population will be 65 years and older. To put this in a numbers perspective, the population of Americans 65 and older will double from around 46 million today to 98 million by 2060 (Mather, Jacobsen, & Pollard, 2015). With direct correlation to population trends, the number of individuals using long term care services will also double from 13 million in 2000, to 27 million people in 2050. 35% of the population 65 and plus will eventually enter a nursing home (Friedman, 2015). The average annual rate for a private room in a nursing home is around $90,000 (Effros, Hsu, & Levy- Storms 2017). These high costs place an significantly large burden on the older population who must

The challenge America now faces is the number of people reaching retirement will double in number by 2030, and the U.S. population will increase almost 20 percent ("Our Aging Nation," 2015). The goal is for the elderly to maintain and live with independence and dignity, as well as, provide a wide range of professional health and social service expertise, home care, and residential support and services that will be needed ("Our Aging Nation," 2015). Since the number of caregivers needed for this population will not be able to meet the demands other resolutions are considered necessary.

Assisted living helps each person value life to its fullest potential. When it comes to making an older individual feel more at home and also be able to focus more on non-stressful activities, they need to be ensured the best care. “Families feel more confident and are less ‘protective’ when there is continuity in staff and they are deemed competent. Staff are more likely to be retained where they feel valued”2 part of the quote which is especially conducive to the argument is, “where they feel valued.” When picking and choosing a nursing home that fits individual the best, and will provide them with the care needed, it is important to make sure that everyone is valued in the process. This quote is important because if the workers are not being taken care of, then they are less enthusiastic and also less likely to give someone’s loved one the care needed and to know what is expected from them. It is assumed that when picking an assisted living home, that the well being of the person and also many other characteristics are taken into

in place is long term care delivery system for older community adults designed to keep them in the environment of their choice as long as possible. This care system includes physicians, nurses and other professionals’ to support older adults’ medical functioning, functional wellbeing and social support to maintain them in their homes (Popejoy, Galambos, Stetzer, Popescu, Hicks, Khalilia, Rantz & Marek, 2015). Aging in place have two folds of benefits: from the perspective of older adults and the policy maker. Most adults want to grow old in their own homes i.e. age in place. Aging in place offers a sense of autonomy; maintain the identity and social relationship, being in home older adults is not compelled to change their lifestyle and daily routine. Older adults with low economic status do not feel the economic burden in comparison to being in nursing homes. On the other hand policy maker also think that institutional care is much more expensive than aging in place (Iecovich, 2014).

As a leader in healthcare services for the elderly, Hope House, Incorporated continues to provide top of the line services in home health and Alzheimer’s care. Yet within the past 12 months, the company’s home town of Joliet, Montana (population 12,000) has shown a rising concern regarding the care of many of their elderly residents. While the community does have a newly remodeled long term care facility, owned and managed by a Long-term Care Corporation, out of New York State, this facility does not meet the needs of those elderly or disabled community members who are not needing full time residential care. In order meet the broad spectrum of the community’s elder housing needs, Hope House, Inc. must choose to assist with a change in their functions of services and thereby incorporate and communicate a risk assessment and a risk management plan to the board of directors for Hope House, Inc. to build and manage an assisted living facility (ALF) for the community.

The American culture glorifies being young and our members chase youth and pretend to be young for as long as possible. Aging is seen as somehow wrong and embarrassing. This is easily seen in the ‘anti-aging’ creams, pills, potions, exercises, etc. In our society, the cultural norm is to live in your own home as long as possible, thus proving your independence and your right to continue to be part of society. When you can no longer take care of yourself due to medical and/or financial reasons you move (or are put into) a nursing home. Once in a nursing home it is ‘out of sight, out of mind.’ Typically people in nursing homes aren’t viewed as being members of our overall society. Many elderly patients are seldom, if ever, visited by

The American Journal of Nursing embarked on a series that addressed growing concerns related to the elderly population in the United States. The author of this paper focused on the article related to

Considering this data as vast and broad it tends to generalize the lifestyle of every senior home. It portrays the disadvantages of senior homes. For example, less communication with other family members. According to Moody and Sasser, “The ideal of a continuum of care expresses the aim of keeping older people as long as possible out of nursing homes-the most expensive and service-intensive settings” (p. 158). Medicaid does not cover total cost of the senior and nursing homes. In 2000, Metlife studies showed “the average cost of year in a private nursing home was $90,520. Of those who enter a nursing home as "private-pay" patients, after only three months, nearly 70% have reached the poverty level, and within a year, 90% are impoverished” (p. 209).

The nursing homes that are present today have definitely evolved a great deal from where they first started. Before the 19th century, no age-restricted institutions existed in order to care for long term residents. The elderly people who had an incapacity, were impoverished, or had no family, often ended their days in almshouses (FATE). In these almshouses, elders had to live with those who were insane, intoxicated, and homeless. The older individuals ended up being the dominant residents in the almshouses so superintendents changes the names of these asylums. By 1923, the proportion of elders had increased to 67% in the institutions, and managers stated they could find everything they needed (FATE). This began the formation of nursing homes, however, there was still a negative view that came from the almshouses. People still