Assisted Living Facility Age Friendly Research (Research Paper Sample)

Assisted Living Facility Age Friendly Research
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Introduction
Aging is a normal phenomenon in the human cycle of life. However, aging may sometimes have some negative impacts on a person with regards to the person’s health. As a person ages there are some physiological changes, which occur in the person’s body systems. Some of the factors that affect a person’s nutrition as due to aging include decreased taste. This may be due to the fact that the older people have decreased taste buds as compared to the younger people. According to the recent statistics the amount of taste buds begin to decrease in the humans as they mature with age from about 40-50 years in women and from about 50-60 in the men (Beattie, Song, & LaGore, 2005). This causes a loss in smell of foods, which affects the appetite of the elderly leading them to suffer some nutritional deficiency as they may decide not to eat some foods, which they may not like. Moreover, loss of appetite is also a huge factor that leads to the nutritional status of people. This is because with the normal process of aging the person tends to experience lack of appetite. This paper analyzes the issue of assisted living facilities and how they affect the elderly. It also takes a closer look at what the assisted living facilities are, and see what role they play in the life of the elderly.
People as they age may not be able to absorb the nutrients well due to problems with their metabolism as a result of aging. According to research the digestive tract of older people is not able to absorb vitamins properly, hence they may experience deficiency of vitamins and thereby, leading them to suffer some nutritional deficiency problems (Beattie, Song, & LaGore, 2005). Aging people may also experience depression and isolation, which is a very huge cause for poor nutrition. Therefore, they tend to suffer from nutritional deficiency as a result of depression and isolation. Aging leads to factors like menopause and prostate problems, which play a major role in the nutritional deficiency of the aging people (Cartwright & Kayser-Jones, 2003).
Assisted Living Facilities
If one is concerned about their loved one’s safety and well-being, he or she may start looking for an assisted living home or a nursing home. Since there a number of different facilities that are present to ensure that the elderly are properly cared for, there is a need to ensure that one chooses the proper facility, which will in turn cover all his or her needs. It becomes, therefore, imperative for people to understand the definition of assisted living facilities and the definition of the nursing home. Assisted living facilities were introduced around the 90’s through a rebellion against the institutional setting often found in the nursing facilities, which were operating at the time. The living rooms found in the assisted living facilities in most cases consist of private rooms that are able to hold the residents belongings, including furniture and decorations. The staffs in the assisted living facilities respect the resident’s privacy, and offer them a sense of independence. There is also the aspect of shared meals and laundry services, which characterize assisted living facilities (Rodiek, 2006).
Assisted living facilities also offer some housekeeping services to the residents. The residents of these assisted living facilities get help from the staff in activities such as feeding, bathing, taking medication, and dressing among others. The people who thrive well in these assisted living facilities in turn enter the senior care community where they stay in the familiar surroundings until their time to pass on comes. This occurrence is referred to as aging in place (Beattie, Song, & LaGore, 2005).
Nursing Homes
On the other hand, there are the nursing homes where unlike the assisted living facilities provide round the clock medical services to the residents. These homes are commonly associated with the elderly individuals who require a lot of supervision and help in carrying out the day to day activities. They are also largely connected to residents who have severe reasoning impairment or suffer from medical conditions that make it had for them to manage the day to day personal duties. The nursing homes provide skilled nursing facilities for the residents. Cost wise the nursing homes are more expensive compared to the assisted living facilities (Armstrong, Rhoads, & Meiling, 2001).
Factors to Consider before one is placed in a Facility
As an adult ages and becomes less capable of living on their own due to factors like injury, illness or as a result of natural aging, it becomes imperative that they look for an assisted living facility. However, if the individual has family or friends he or she may consider other options. These options include moving in with the family members or friends. Another option would be to have a family member or friend moving in with them. The elder may also chose the option of having a person preferably a trained nurse to come in regularly to perform personal care tasks and help with the household tasks. They also decide to move to a retirement home or a nursing home of their choice (Mitty, 2003).
Before admitting an elderly person to an assisted living facility, it is important to first assess the person’s physical and cognitive health before admission to any facility. This rarely happens since in many cases the patients are admitted based on reports from their previous physicians who at times are not fully qualified to diagnose early signs of dementia or the imminent loss of mobility of the patients. The facilities also admit residents without first of all analyzing the physicians report. They in turn end up admitting people who are incapable of dressing or eating and subsequently charge the families or friends of this people a lot to perform these duties for them. Sometimes the only reason that these facilities admit residents is so that they fill the spaces left without the proper analysis of the resident’s condition (Aud & Rantz, 2005).
The fact that these facilities admit people who require a lot of care in turn causes a lot of pressure to be exerted on the workers of the facility. This in turn causes some of the patients’ needs to be neglected. The solution to this problem, however, would be to introduce geriatric care givers, which would in turn have the disadvantage of being costly and making the assisted living facilities unaffordable (Beattie, Song, & LaGore, 2005). Many families and friends of the elderly transfer their loved ones to these homes just because they like the physical appearance of these assisted living facilities. However, the fact that these facilities are well furnished does not mean that they are the best for their loved ones since they may lack proper care and attention during the night, and it may just be the same as living in their own homes. Another disadvantages of the assisted living facilities is the fact that the doctors who operate in these facilities are not full time employees there, therefore, they do not hang around the facility so much and may be unavailable to answer any questions that the residents may have (Lowe, Lucas, Castle, Robinson, & Crystal, 2003).
The core goal of these assisted living facilities is not to cure the residents or to prolong their life. Rather these facilities are there to ensure that the residents are comfortable in their day to day activities. Some people fail to understand this concept and end up frustrated as their expectations are not met. In this case, what matters is the quality of life for the elderly (Magsi & Malloy, 2005).
Senior adults have become a large part of the population as their population has been growing significantly. This is mostly as a result of the improved medical care and the increase in life expectancy. Looking at the statistics in the 90’s, the U.S elderly population was 12.7% and by the year 2020 this value is predicted to have increased to 18% (Beattie, Song, & LaGore, 2005). Disability, however, also goes hand in hand with age and a significant number of the elderly are disabled also. Older adults with disability are likely to need long-term health care services as to cover for their disabilities and in turn assist in maintaining their psychological well-being (Hawes, Phillips, Rose, Holan & Sherman, 2003).
Advantages of the Assisted Living Facility
Assisted living facilities are the best idea for the ageing population. This is due to the fact that they have some advantages that they bring up. One of the advantages of the assisted living facilities is the fact that it can help delay the placement of the elder in nursing home. The assisted living facilities are known by various names in the U.S; however, these names all mean the same thing (Hawes, Phillips, Rose, Holan & Sherman, 2003). Often residents of the assisted living facilities are able to continue acting independent, which is a key aspect of living. Care is made available for the residents; be it the medical, social or any care around the clock. There is also the benefit of housekeeping. The staff members of these facilities give the residents a hand in the food preparation as well as any regular tasks by creating schedules for the residence (Sikorska, 1999). Aside from that, the residents are independent to go shopping with their loved ones. Based on the national center for assisted living, there are outlines that are put in place to ensure that the assisted care services are up to standard. Some of these standards include; accessibility, independence, and quality of life among others. Most of the assisted care facilities strive to meet these guidelines. The staffs, on the other hand, strive to meet the...