Plans for the Aging Population's Health Care Facility - Essay Example

?Plans for the Aging Population's Health Care Facility ‘Competition with complexity’, in urbanized present day life, has affected the emotional family bonding, resulted in a helpless isolated life of elderly people. Early post modern era, constituting of joint family system, nevertheless, had provided comfortable environment for independent and cheerful life of elderly people, giving respect to their ethical values. Such environment is possibly successful to provide an indispensable psychological support to those who are in the verge of inability in both; mental and physical aspects. Rather than the physical aspects, elderly people are much more prone to the psychological negativity towards their life. They are aware of the fact that the life is getting towards the end. ‘Nothing known to be real except minds and their thoughts and feelings.’ (Russell, 2004). Such kind of psychological distortion would give birth to various physical illnesses, making an elderly life terribly intolerable. They need a compassionate surrounding with love and affection to ease them to their emotional trouble. The family system in post-modernism has lack of emotional bonding; as the people are busy competing for their identity and collecting securable asset in their life. They hardly have time, to share with their family members. Resultantly, elderly people find themselves in critical isolation with disabled and painful life. They are left in a serious situation with no one to depend on; leading to lack of emotional support. Elderly people are sensitive and emotional in nature; as above mentioned points are the major causes behind such circumstances. These people may suffer from several physical problems; some they can explain in words and some they cannot. Some of the Physical illnesses in elderly people may be detected through the symptoms, but, most of them do not show any symptoms. As in the case of delirium or falls; Pneumonia, for example, may conquer their body with light symptoms only, like low-grade fever, dehydration, confusion etc., consequently it is difficult to diagnose the disease. Now we discuss about the general problems of elderly people which are frequently faced. General Problems of Old People As we have already discussed about, how elderly people are easily prone to illnesses; it is important to analyze the problems clinically. An intensive medication is necessary to heal their problem. Elderly people often suffer from several illnesses at a single point of time. If the prescriptions in such cases are not done carefully; it my results in an adverse drug reaction as a result of poly-pharmacy. This happens due to improper administration and use of potentially inappropriate medications and the possibility of errors that could result in dangerous drug interactions. Poly-pharmacy is often a predictive factor. Research done on community health care found that "nearly 1 of 3 medical regimens contain a potential medication error" (Choi et al, 2006). Other serious problems in elderly people are: faulty vision and hearing problem. That leads to increase in social isolation, depression and dependency. Such problems are critical, as they lead to mismanagement in their every day life. Along with this, arthritis is the other common problem among the elderly people; as they often have osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, or gout. Now we discuss about the arthritis as another major problem of elderly people; as it has influenced the highest number of elderly population in every parts of the world. There is a need of initiating an effective method of bone treatment to help the elderly people with arthritis. ‘Collectively, all forms of arthritis account for the leading cause of disability in the US, affecting approximately 43 million persons and costing approximately $65 billion in 1992’. (Impact of Arthritis and other rheumatic conditions on the health-care system, 1997) Different kinds of arthritis affect the body of a person in several different ways. In some cases there are swelling, warmth and redness in the joints. Whereas, in other case, the patient may only have, very painful, short time swelling. In some cases there is less of pain, but that damages the joint slowly. 1. Osteoarthritis Most common kind of arthritis found in older people is osteoarthritis. It happens due to wearing away of bone padding cartilage in a joint; resulting in a pain and swelling due to friction between two bones. Person may suffer with this problem in hand, neck, lower back heavy weight bearing joints. The symptoms of osteoarthritis, varies from serious to mild, giving a frequent pain. In some case, the joints become unbendable, if you have not moved them for a while. This problem may even cause disability, if heavy-weight bearing joints are affected. 2. Rheumatoid Arthritis Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease; it occurs when body itself attacks the joints. Resultantly, person may suffer from pain, swelling and stiffness for a short period followed by fever. Rheumatoid arthritis may also cause problems with heart, blood vessels, nervous system and eyes. 3. Gout Arthritis It is one of the most painful kind of arthritis. It mostly attacks the toe; making the area red or purple in color followed by swelling. Eating foods like liver, dried beans, peas, anchovies, or gravy can lead to a gout attack. Obesity, use of alcohol, and taking certain medicines may make gout worse. Blood pressure medicines of certain kind also increase the chance of a gout attack. If any of the symptoms mentioned above, remains for more than 14 days, then patient needs to see the arthritis specialist who is called as rheumatologist. Hospital Set up and Staff Management. Since the hospital is specialized for treating elderly people’s arthritis problem; it is necessary for the managing committee of the hospital to create a suitable environment which is comfortable for elderly people, physically as well as mentally. As we have discussed that, elderly people are sensitive psychologically. Simultaneously, arthritis has an over all impact; both physical and mental, as it affects the joints and blood vessels as well as the nervous system of a human body. Specially trained staff, with psychological understanding, should be given the responsibility to handle the elderly cases, as most of the elderly people are unable to explain their problem; Most of the time they remain confused about their problem. The hospital should provide the proper bed and room facility, with a homely environment; that prevents them from being nostalgic. Simultaneously, hospital management should be prepared to give equal standard facilities and the proper treatment to all the elderly patients admitted in the hospital. Hospital should employ sufficient number of rheumatologist, who is specialized for arthritis problem, so that the elderly people get the proper treatment for their problem. Short Term Plans Along with the medical treatment, management should make arrangements for the physical exercises; it is a basic and indispensible part for arthritis treatment. This may include varieties of motion exercises, like dancing, weight training etc. which respectively helps in flexibility in joints and strengthening the muscles and help the patient moving their joints. To keep the heart and arteries in good health, prevent the fatness etc., bicycle riding is suggested. As per the recent researches acupressure is also a successful method to ease osteoarthritis. In addition, glucosamine and chondroitin are the best dietary supplements to overcome the unbearable pain of osteoarthritis. In this short term plan, the management committee is required to provide the necessary equipments, machines, the exercise and dancing halls along with trained instructors in the particular field. 1. Awareness Programs Hospital should organize, awareness program around the city to inform people about the cause, symptoms and effects of several kinds of arthritis, so that the people with such symptoms get the treatment in time before it gets worse. That can be done by distributing pamphlets, performing street plays, organizing medical camp and workshops etc. 5 Years Plan For the long term management and planning to cope with the problem of arthritis among elderly people, the hospital management needs to plan its budget for its infrastructural development. That can be possible with the implication of certain policies as mentioned below: Providing hospital with well equipped technology to make the chronic surgery possible. Employing specialized and skilled staff to provide patients with proper diagnoses and treatment. Redesign the hospital infrastructure to provide the elderly patient a homely environment. Creating an eco-friendly environment around the hospital e.g. developing garden, swimming pool, library and other amuse places etc. Hospital should also conduct researches on arthritis in their area to obtain the idea about the possible circumstances in coming five year, to prepare them to any kind of situation. Role of Staff Since caring elderly people is a very sensitive task, staff must be very much responsible to handle them carefully. Staff attains the patients directly every moment, therefore all the staff needs to serve the elderly patients in a homely manner with love and affection. Along with that, all the policies of the management to improve the health service to elderly people ultimately come in staff’s hand. Thus a positive tendency of the staff, plays a key role in executing those policies in the hospital or a care centre. There are some key factors to include in any health care center’s policies that provide a comfortable and satisfactory environment and medication for elderly people. The policies must include developing homely environment with support of skilled staff, good opportunities of amusement to let them be involved, modern medication facilities should be equipped in the hospital and finally, a proper behavioral therapy should be applied to prevent them from psychological troubles. References Russell, Bertrand. EBook, 5827. (2004). The problems of philosophy. Retrieve Web sources. Choi, Y.J. Lee. G. Park, J.H. personal communication, (2006). Retrieve from web sources. MMWR. Impact of Arthritis and Other Rheumatic Conditions on the Health-Care System. United States. (1997). Retrieve from web sources. Read More