Aging Stereotypes

Grumpy, stubborn, depressing, mean, unappreciative, immobile, and boring are all stereotypes that I have heard about elderly. I am fairly patient with elders, but I can see how other young people may place these stereotypes on older people. Since elders generally have a different point of view than young a barrier is created which causes young people to have a negative view of elders. I do not think all of these stereotypes apply to all elders. I think that elders reflect how their life was spent so their characteristics vary.

If an older person has lived a long life without a significant other, they are more likely to be grumpy or mean. If an elder is used to getting everything he wanted, then it will cause him to be stubborn or unappreciative. I think this is where the stereotypes generate from and I believe some of them are true. But I believe this development of characteristics work both ways so those should not be the only stereotypes. For example: an elder that feels their life has been fulfilled would be a more relaxed, positive person.

I know several elders that do not fit these stereotypes such as my 60 year old uncle who jogs daily. He defiantly does not fit the stereotype of being immobile. I just think as young people we do not socialize with elders regularly so we label them with basis statements because we are not accustom their ways.

PTs For Veterans

A particular group of elders have been growing into a large number amongst our long term care consumers. They have served our country for years and surely desire quality health care. Veterans have been a great concern and as a result they have been made a priority to our society. In 2008, Representatives Stephanie H. Sandlin and John Boozman introduced the HR 6792 Veterans Physical Therapy Services Improvement Act.

“We must be proactive in ensuring there are qualified rehabilitation specialists to help meet the increasing veterans population. Giving our veterans the care they deserve for the sacrifices they made is something I will continue to fight for,” said Boozman.

The objective of HR 6792 Veterans Physical Therapy Services Improvement Act is to improve the retention and recruitment of physical therapists in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). Some of the bill’s actions include rehabilitation research and create new fellowship programs for PTs in areas that are in great need of them.

I think this bill is an excellent investment for long term care! Not only does it take care of our well deserved LTC consumers, but also encourages career opportunities in health care. Boozman made an excellent point in his quote. Veterans are the hero’s that took care of us when we needed them, and now we have the privileged opportunity to help them when they need it the most!

Reference Article:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/117575.php

Blog #3 Wildcard

So I overheard a conversation between my supervisor and another employee yesterday. She was telling my supervisor how she really needs help taking care of her mother and sister. Her mother is over the age of 65 with several health problems including strokes, and her sister is suffering from systemic lupus erythematosus in her knee (leads to cancer). Medicare is paying 50% of both their expenses, and they were just accepted by Medicaid after applying a second time. She did not know if there were any alternatives for her care giving. Since we just finished part-two, LTC service providers, I pulled our textbook out and offered my help.

I told them about adult day care centers, and just as the book stated, a lot of people are not aware of adult day care. I explained the services the center provides. I included details such as their availability Monday through Friday during the day only, and the center may offer traveling arrangements. She also told me that a friend visits for a couple of hours to help them out. Then, I informed her about the services from both home health care and assisted living. I told her that her mother and sisters expenses should be covered since they are Medicare and soon Medicaid. I don’t know how extreme her mother’s condition was, but I also told her that she should probably look into a nursing facility for her mother. She was quick to disagree, but was very happy that I introduced her to several services that she did not know existed.

It felt great being able to help her, but I also felt bad because she is the primary caregiver and works we all work full-time. I’m only an intern here at SAMHSA and we’re working hard because our office is understaffed so I can only image what she is going through. She seems to be avoiding institutionalizing her mother due to her past experiences. She was enraged when she discovered that the nurses were not taking care of her mother properly while in the hospital, and I will not even mention the things she told me. I can see that we need to deliver much better quality of care and keep our moral values high.

I gave her the best advice and she is waiting for assistance from Medicaid. I told her to look into the services I mentioned while she is waiting. If there is someone reading this that has advice that she could benefit from please feel free to respond. Thanks!

Blog #2 Wildcard

In chapter 2 starting on page 46 of our LTC textbook for HSA 3222 is section titled "The long-term care system should involve families and care delivery." It is a section that is only a page and a half long, but I fell that it carries alot of useful information while revealing a major moral issue.

The title itself gives away the one great idea. Allow more family members to handle most of these duties rather than pay a health care provider. The consumer would most likely feel more comfortable with a family member over a health care provider and it would be a more cost effective method. Even if the family member would recieve some sort of reimbursement it would still more than likely be less costly. If the the health care providers do not believe that the family member knows the "proper protocals" for assisting the consumer, then the health care provider should have some sort of training. The family memebers providing care could as be placed in some program under the primary health care provider.

The moral problem is in the last sentence of this section: "Organizations representing health care professionals tend to resist attempts to allow what they see as potential replacement by untrained civilians (Pratt p.47)." I am not even going to get into how wrong that is because it is so obvious... But I would like to say that there is enough "business" for everyone in the health care feild, if they want to look at it in that prespective. Health care providers are already definatly short handed and LTC consumers will increase drastically in the future.
So my question to those representatives is... Why bit more than you can chew?

Long Term Care : HSA 3222

When discussing care for the elderly there are several factors to consider such as their financial status, family support, and physical ability. I think that these factors should be carefully reviewed. We need to be sensitive to elders needs' because they are very dependent at their age and may become a great burden upon their families.

As a retired elder, seniors only have a few resources of income to choose from: personnel retirement plans (if invested), family support (if their family can afford it), and government assistance. Adults around the early 60's are not as keen as they used to be so employment is not likely. So a job is not an option for income either because elders may only cause more damage to their bodies.Since the government provides social security and Medicare, they should feel responsible for making sure everyone is served.


Long term care to me is sincerely trying to find a way to provide the services necessary to every elders' need.