Nursing homes still house a large number of older Americans. According to the U.S. Administration on Aging, "Although nursing homes are being increasingly used for short-stay post-acute care, about 1.3 million elderly are in nursing homes (about half are age 85 and over)." There are also more elder care services than ever before, including different geriatric specialties and other caregivers trained specifically to work with seniors. To find the right facilities and services for the elder in your life, learn to rate them effectively.
Instructions
1. Gather information on the elder care services near you. Visit the offices of nursing homes, assisted living facilities, or outpatient programs to ask questions about the programs. Rate higher, any programs that have physical, social, and therapeutic activities for the seniors living or visiting there. Look for an activity calendar to see if it is fairly full, including weekends. Ask about the availability of staff and what continuing education requirements the staff must meet to remain employed at their elder care job. Inquire at your state's health department about how many complaints there have been against the institution.
2. Give high marks to elder care situations that use a group effort. During a December 12, 2007 study, the GRACE (Geriatric Resources for Assessment and Care of Elders) team approach to senior care was tested. It used one support team of a social worker and a nurse practitioner, along with a second interdisciplinary team of doctors, therapists, and social workers. The program met with great success, "improving both quality of care and health-related quality of life measures while reducing emergency department use."
3. Visit the living areas of the elder care facility. Notice whether the majority of the people are alert or seem to be overly drugged. Visit during mealtime so you can see what the people are being fed and how the staff reacts if they do not eat. Try to talk to residents and/or their relatives if you have the chance. They can give you insiders' views of the adequacy of the nursing home or other facility.
4. Rate the elder care offered based on facility programs, patient activities, staff treatment of residents, medical care available, and health department statistics. Choose a living situation with all these factors in mind. Considerations of cost and distance are less important than the quality of care, but in the end, you need to give thought to them.
5. Re-rate the institution periodically after you have made your decision and placed any senior in an elder care residence. Check the nursing home resident for bed sores. Check for over-drugging. Listen to complaints of abuse and get to the bottom of any problem that has come up since admission. Ask the elder whether the planned activities actually do take place. Speak to the medical team about the elder's care.
6. Remove the older adult from any elder care service if you have strong indications that abuse or neglect is going on there. Help them to remain in situations where the care is excellent and the staff is top-notch. Those are the most important ratings you can give.
7. Rate other elder care services by how they benefit your senior. Notice if the elder's health needs are being addressed properly to rate geriatric doctors. Go to a geriatric physical therapy appointment with your older adult to see how she is treated. Meet with the social worker to find out how her needs are being met. Always be on the lookout for problems in elder care, but do not be afraid to acknowledge good treatment as well.
Tags: elder care, elder care, care services, elder care services, health department, needs being