Challenges and Solutions for Long-Term Care in Aging Populations - Assignment Example

 Challenges and Solutions for Long-Term Care in Aging PopulationsTop of FormBottom of Form The elderly people as they reach the retirement age the society and the government raises a lot of issues concerning the care that they should be given and by whom. The long term care as the studies in the United States has shown is one that will put a strain on the country’s economy and the systems of health care in the future. The paper will address the challenges the administrators go through while trying to take care of the elderly population and the skills and the knowledge that they need in order to deal with the challenges in the right manner (Dychtwald, 1999). According to a latest statistics carried out around 40 million people in the United States are aged more than 65 years of age and the country is projected to have 89 million citizens above 65 years by the year 2050. This raises a concern for the help the elderly will be given and by whom. Will the facilities like Medicare and Medicaid provide the service or will they have to depend on their families for support. The above issues show the urgency and the need for the health sector and the government to look into this problem and tackle it as a matter of urgency (United States, 1986). The long term care services both in-house and in the health care facilities are associated with medical care but they have an emphasis on helping the elderly with their daily chores which include bathing and preparing meals on the condition that they need this assistance. The Medicare is headed by a health professional though a health aid (normal person) will also help the elderly. The issuing of the special equipments that they require which include wheelchairs and grab bars is also a responsibility of the long term care service providers. The long term care services are however not only needed by the elderly, but research shows that only a small percentage of the people who require the service are of the younger age (Wilson Company,2014). The challenges they face come from the day to day duties that they are supposed to perform and may face a lot of challenges which may range from the lack of finances. The government and other health care providers in the United States have not put a lot of emphasis on the long-term care services and as a result the nurses and the administrators find themselves overstretched by the resources they have at their disposal. The other challenge is the lack of expertise in dealing with the elderly in the community, and they are not aware of what to do or how to treated people who are elder than them. There should be some training that should be provided to help the nurses and the administrators have the right knowledge of dealing with the elderly cases (Nyce, 2005). The challenges are even worse when they involve the assistance of the people who have the challenge of the activities of daily living. These activities include the people who are not in a position to feed them, go for short or long calls, cannot get around the house; they cannot get out of their beds and most basic activities of the daily living. There are also the people with the challenges in the instrumental activities of the daily living which are inclusive of managing their medications, using their phones and the right housework. All these activities are sometimes challenging to the health administrators including the personal activities like going to the toilet. These are additional challenges apart from the challenges of the finances (Nyce, 2005). All these are referred to the assisted living which may be in-house or in the assistant living facilities and the ones living in the nursing home require having an assistant all through as they are more disabled. One of the long term care services solution is educating the people while they are young, by conducting a nationwide campaign to make the people knowledgeable and how they are to deal with their elderly age and avoid constraint to the government and to their people. There has been the Medicaid and the Medicare facilities that have been providing finances for the long term care only if they are living in the nursing homes. There have been some uprising private long term insurances which have however been covering less than 5% of the total long-term cases that exist in the United States (Butler, 2008). The nurses require the necessary skills and knowledge as said earlier and by also conducting the following campaign for the nurses. The government can come up with a systematic training program and conduct seminars to train the nurses on the different ways of handling the elderly in the long term care services. All the nurses should have the management skills that are relevant to manage the nursing facilities that take care of the elderly in the society. The nurses should have the knowledge and the skills for the nursing practices which include the care for the people with dementia, assistance training for maintaining the living functions, the care for eating and swallowing and the care for excretion and the bed sores (Smith, 2009). In the future there will be a growing need to have training facilities for the long-term care providers on the best ways to work for the elderly and the people who need the long term care irrespective of whether they are old or young. There is a challenge of a shortage of nurses, and there is no future show of a boost in the quantity of nurses, this poses another big challenge. The challenge is the lack of the qualified nursing instructors in the nursing school which now turns the blame to the government. The government should provide nursing lecturers in the nursing schools to train more nurses which will address the shortage of the few nurses for the long-term care services. The wages of these nurses have to be increased to increase the desirability of the jobs and attract more people to read (Butler, 2008). In conclusion, the future challenge will be addressed by both the government and also the citizens themselves. The people in the working jobs should be in a position to take the retirement schemes provided by the employers and also those who have low income have the opportunity to take advantage of the provisions of the Affordable health care Act. The majorities of the Americans takes for granted the health care issues and should be careful and take advantage of the wellness programs offered by the employers. There has been the rising of the community development programs like one in Chicago formerly led by Michele Obama whose aim is to educate and increase awareness of the healthier living. The program has also been advocating for the stop of drug abuse among the youth, and these procedures are intended to slow the need for the long-term care services (Smith, 2009). References United States. (1986). Long term care survey: The long term care survey process : training manual. Washington, D.C.?: U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Health Care Financing Administration, Health Standards and Quality Bureau. Dychtwald, K. (1999). Healthy aging: Challenges and solutions. Gaithersburg, Md: Aspen Publishers. H.W. Wilson Company,. (2014). Aging in America. Butler, R. N. (2008). The longevity revolution: The benefits and challenges of living a long life. New York: PublicAffairs. Nyce, S. A., & Schieber, S. J. (2005). The economic implications of aging societies: The costs of living happily ever after. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Smith, D. J., & Armstrong, S. (2009). If America were a village: A book about the people of the United States. Toronto, Ont: Kids Can Press. Read More