The Growing Needs In Seniors Care
Today there are a lot of conversations about seniors, the senior care industry, its growth and what are contributing factors. Most people understand that this growth is commonly due to a population that is aging and the products and services needed for them. Just the size of this aging generation is a main factor to the growth of the home care industry and its individual agencies. Consideration should be given to all of the reasons for this growth, not merely the aging population.
There are several articles circulating implying that the growth of the aging population is actually a myth. They believe the reason for the boom in the home care industry is due to the economy and other financial factors. However, even in some of these articles, they still do attest that the population is getting older and that many more of them will need home care.
Though it has been acknowledged that our population is aging, there may be other factors leading to the growth in the home care industry. Another factor may be knowledge. Many health care experts are suggesting it to their patients and clients, therefore exposing those that may not have known about it to become aware of this industry. Also, political lobbying and institutional reform may be smaller contributing factors to this growth.
It is key with this growth to not assume that any one thing is the sole reason for the home care industry’s growth. Rather, it’s a combination of several factors all coming together at the right moment. We should seek to understand every factor and know that each in its individual way is what is creating growth in the home care industry. Read More Here: http://www.guardian-angelcare.com
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Thursday, January 24, 2013
Monday, April 16, 2012
Caregivers to seniors need more help, report says...
Canadians attempting to care for seniors at home are having trouble coping and not receiving the support they need from the health system, concludes a new report from the Health Council of Canada.
The report found that those seniors with the most complex health needs – such as those with both dementia and medical problems – are not getting enough support. They often receive only slightly more publicly-funded home care a week than those with more fewer needs, the report found.
Not only does that put ailing seniors at risk, the stress also risks the health of their home-based caregivers, who are usually family members and often seniors themselves.
The demand for home-based care has grown significantly in recent years, with the number of home care recipients rising by 51 per cent in the last decade. This report is the first cross-Canada look at how the home care system is adapting to this shift.
It found that one-third of seniors receiving home care have complex health needs, often involving both a physical disability and cognitive impairment. But close to half of those seniors with the most complex health needs have "distressed" caregivers.
These caregivers report feelings of stress, anger, and depression. And many say they are finding it difficult to continue to provide care.
"Those caring for seniors with dementia are suffering most of all, reporting the highest levels of stress, social isolation, depression, and chronic health problems," the report notes.
The report authors note that "burned-out" caregivers cannot help their loved one if they end up in hospital themselves or become unable to function.
"Many family caregivers of high-needs seniors are at a breaking point. Both the caregiver and vulnerable senior are at risk in these situations," the report authors write.
"…Family caregivers are the backbone of the home care system; they need to be adequately supported for the system to work."
According to the report authors, there were 2.7 million Canadians over the age of 45 acting as caregivers to family members. Most of these family caregivers -- 60 per cent -- were women, and one-quarter were seniors themselves.
The more care these family members provided, the higher their levels of stress, the report found.
Caregivers who provided more than 21 hours per week of care reported higher levels of distress, as did those who were caring for people with depression, cognitive deficits, or behavioural problems.
The report notes that while home care co-ordinators often fully assess the needs of the patients requiring care, there is often no system for ensuring that caregivers have what they need too.
"Caregivers have various needs, including a need for information, a need to be involved in decision-making, a need for breaks (respite) from caregiving duties, and help with navigating the health system," the report says.
"However, assessments of potential home care clients usually do not include comprehensive caregiver assessments, which means that their needs go unnoticed."
The report offers a number of suggestions for easing the stress. It notes that since hospitals are the main source of referrals to home care, home care should be more integrated in the health-care system, the report advises. To that end, a client's family physician should be included as part of the home care team, the authors suggest.
As well, the report suggests shifting more funding into home care, noting that Canada spends considerably more on long-term care facilities than on home care, even though polls suggest most Canadian seniors live at home and want to stay there as long as possible.
The report advises that governments and the health system should:
- recognize that home care has become a cornerstone of the health care system
- provide ongoing support for family caregivers and immediate relief for those in distress
- adapt or expand the programs that are working
- consider new home care options before new investments in long-term care facilities
Read more: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Health/20120416/home-care-seniors-health-council-canada-120416/#ixzz1sDdgAArC
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Canadian seniors account for 85 per cent of patients in hospital beds
Seniors Need Care at Home But Recruiting Is Drying Up From Overseas
Canadian seniors account for 85 per cent of patients in hospital beds who could be receiving care elsewhere, a problem that will only grow as the first baby boomers turn 65 this year, according to a new report.
Thursday's report by the Canadian Institute for Health Information called Health Care in Canada, 2011: A Focus on Seniors and Aging, examines how seniors use the health system and where there’s room for improvement.
For example, 47 per cent of seniors have completed their hospital treatment but remain in an acute-care hospital because they're waiting to be moved to a long-term care facility such as a nursing home or to rehab or home with support (so-called "alternate level of care" patients.)
Those patients have a ripple effect on the rest of a hospital, said Dr. Jeff Turnball chief of staff of the Ottawa Hospital.
"The delays of getting into the hospital delays, of getting timely surgery diagnostics, all are affected by our that fact that we have so many people sitting in our acute-care beds," said Turnbull.
Last year, those ripples meant the hospital had to cancel 600 elective surgeries, he said.
Currently, seniors represent 14 per cent of the population, but they use 40 per cent of hospital services and account for about 45 per cent of health spending of provincial and territorial government, the report's authors found.
For hospitals, an acute -care bed costs about $1,100 a day. In comparison, Turnbull estimated it costs a quarter of that to care for the same senior in the community.
The goal for governments should be to spend money on the right services so more seniors can stay at home and out of hospital longer, said Kathleen Morris, CIHI's director of health system analysis.
Those services include traditional health-care services such as nursing and physiotherapy as well as transportation or help with household chores to help the 93 per cent of seniors who live at home, Morris said.
Ensuring continuity of care for seniors across the health care system could potentially lead to better care and better quality of life, health policy researcher Marcus Hollander in Victoria said, commenting on the report.
The report's authors pointed to efficient use of new technologies such as:
- A medication monitoring system equipped with a sensor to allow family members to use online video clips to monitor which medications were taken for seniors receiving home-care services.
- Magnetic door sensors that send an email, text message or cell phone message to caregivers if a person with dementia goes outside unattended.
- Flexible bed mats with pressure sensors that let caregivers know when their family member has woken up and is moving.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Are Children Scared of the Elderly…?
October 27, 2011 By Kyle Murphy
Young children uncomfortable around old people…I am always amazed when I see young children interact with an elderly person.
Some children are very comfortable, but the majority seems to be uneasy or scared around seniors. A lot of what I see is in our Residential Care Homes for the Elderly or Board and Care Homes as they are also known.
That probably starts at home. If they have close ties to grandma and grandpa, they are most likely used to seeing them quite often. One difference is that some people in these types of homes need more care and often have disabilities that might be strange to younger children.
What I noticed here in the United States is that seniors downsize and move out of the old neighborhoods where they raised their children living separate lives and only seeing each other here and there. Some of our Elderly populations live in 50 and over parks or communities where children are not allowed. I feel this is unfortunate because exposure to children may very well be what keeps us young.
On our recent trip back to my hometown in Switzerland, I was curious to see if anything had changed. The one thing that I really enjoyed growing up in my little hometown was that the young and old lived together.
In many cases, Grandpa and Grandma would live with their kids until the end, especially on farms. Our Elders were always involved with the younger generations; they even lived in the house next to their families or in the same building as their children and grandchildren.
If one went to a restaurant, you would always find the old and young sitting together and talking about daily issues. I always thought that was great. The younger people learned a great deal from the older generations and older ones learned what’s new with teenagers, etc.
What I found out while on my trip is that times are changing there as well. More and more elders are moving to Assisted Living Communities and Board and Care Homes, usually because of an ailment like Dementia or Alzheimer’s, etc. As fate would have it, a Care Home for the Elderly was built across the street from the house that I grew up in.
But like anywhere in the world, people like to stay home as long as possible and live independently. The one thing that I did not see is 50 plus neighborhoods. People still live in their communities, downsizing here may mean to rent out a room or two to get additional retirement income. Overall, young and old stay in the same neighborhoods and live together without too many problems.
View the Original article
Young children uncomfortable around old people…I am always amazed when I see young children interact with an elderly person.
Some children are very comfortable, but the majority seems to be uneasy or scared around seniors. A lot of what I see is in our Residential Care Homes for the Elderly or Board and Care Homes as they are also known.
That probably starts at home. If they have close ties to grandma and grandpa, they are most likely used to seeing them quite often. One difference is that some people in these types of homes need more care and often have disabilities that might be strange to younger children.
What I noticed here in the United States is that seniors downsize and move out of the old neighborhoods where they raised their children living separate lives and only seeing each other here and there. Some of our Elderly populations live in 50 and over parks or communities where children are not allowed. I feel this is unfortunate because exposure to children may very well be what keeps us young.
On our recent trip back to my hometown in Switzerland, I was curious to see if anything had changed. The one thing that I really enjoyed growing up in my little hometown was that the young and old lived together.
In many cases, Grandpa and Grandma would live with their kids until the end, especially on farms. Our Elders were always involved with the younger generations; they even lived in the house next to their families or in the same building as their children and grandchildren.
If one went to a restaurant, you would always find the old and young sitting together and talking about daily issues. I always thought that was great. The younger people learned a great deal from the older generations and older ones learned what’s new with teenagers, etc.
What I found out while on my trip is that times are changing there as well. More and more elders are moving to Assisted Living Communities and Board and Care Homes, usually because of an ailment like Dementia or Alzheimer’s, etc. As fate would have it, a Care Home for the Elderly was built across the street from the house that I grew up in.
But like anywhere in the world, people like to stay home as long as possible and live independently. The one thing that I did not see is 50 plus neighborhoods. People still live in their communities, downsizing here may mean to rent out a room or two to get additional retirement income. Overall, young and old stay in the same neighborhoods and live together without too many problems.
View the Original article
Monday, November 7, 2011
Raising Grandchildren | 4 Tips for Grandparents
November 2, 2011 By Kyle Murphy
A Grandparents’ Quick Guide to Raising Grandchildren
Here’s 4 Quick Ideas that will help Mold you into the Grandparent you strive to beWhen you’re not visiting in person, try making a scheduled phone call once a week to talk to the child. Encourage him to share some news with you, preferably something only he can reveal.
These phone calls will likely become a favorite event that the child looks forward to.Video Record. If Grandma and Grandpa are hip, they may be carrying a smart phone with a video recorder, a camera with video capabilities, or a digital camcorder. If they try to use anything that winds up, it is time to invest in a birthday gift. Grandparents make wonderful videographers of special events; they hold the camera steady and are usually okay with not being in the middle of things.
Stories. Magnify your family history by telling your granddaughter stories of her parents. For me, it was always the story about my dad painting an entire glass window while my grandmother stepped away for a brief phone call.Celebrate at your house. Holidays are a time for everyone to get together and usually this falls on the oldest generation. Host parties to your heart’s content and cherish family rituals and the time spent together. You never know when it will be the last.
A Grandparents’ Quick Guide to Raising Grandchildren
Grandparents have an incredibly important role in a young baby’s or toddler’s life. You are an additional source of love and care, a valuable resource for the parents, an inspiration to all.
Here’s 4 Quick Ideas that will help Mold you into the Grandparent you strive to beWhen you’re not visiting in person, try making a scheduled phone call once a week to talk to the child. Encourage him to share some news with you, preferably something only he can reveal.
These phone calls will likely become a favorite event that the child looks forward to.Video Record. If Grandma and Grandpa are hip, they may be carrying a smart phone with a video recorder, a camera with video capabilities, or a digital camcorder. If they try to use anything that winds up, it is time to invest in a birthday gift. Grandparents make wonderful videographers of special events; they hold the camera steady and are usually okay with not being in the middle of things.
Stories. Magnify your family history by telling your granddaughter stories of her parents. For me, it was always the story about my dad painting an entire glass window while my grandmother stepped away for a brief phone call.Celebrate at your house. Holidays are a time for everyone to get together and usually this falls on the oldest generation. Host parties to your heart’s content and cherish family rituals and the time spent together. You never know when it will be the last.
View the Original article
5 Ideas to Keep Busy During Retirement
November 1, 2011
By Kyle Murphy
Just because you’re retired doesn’t mean you are done working.
For some of us this means, now we get to pursue something we’ve wanted to do all our lives. Before retirement, we had responsibilities and obligations to provide for family and set aside for retirement; now we actually have the time and hopefully the energy to begin a new chapter. The best part is the luxury of not having to worry about whether your new venture is extremely profitable or not.
Some of These May Seem Obvious
However, consider this a checklist of things not to forget to ask yourself during your Idea Hunt.
Think about jobs that relate to childhood dreams or old hobbies. Buy and sell baseball cards online.Consider a job that enables you to continue or grow your expertise in a certain area. Working at a nursery or teach at a local community college.Do you love fishing, cooking, golfing, traveling, spelunking, law enforcement? There is a creative solution to working as a retiree in almost any industry, especially if you have a comfortable financial lifestyle already.If you can afford to sacrifice income for a rewarding job and vitality, than volunteering is certainly an option.
There is never enough people to fill all the worthy causes in the world, starting with hospitals, schools, libraries, churches, parks, zoos, international relief organizations, and so much moreIf you just want to do something, anything…you can find a company that actively recruits seniors. You may be surprised to find everyone from McDonalds to MetLife wants to employ older people. Why? The AARP has developed a program that partners with companies who encourage experience and leadership from older Americans.
View the Original article
By Kyle Murphy
Just because you’re retired doesn’t mean you are done working.
For some of us this means, now we get to pursue something we’ve wanted to do all our lives. Before retirement, we had responsibilities and obligations to provide for family and set aside for retirement; now we actually have the time and hopefully the energy to begin a new chapter. The best part is the luxury of not having to worry about whether your new venture is extremely profitable or not.
Some of These May Seem Obvious
However, consider this a checklist of things not to forget to ask yourself during your Idea Hunt.
Think about jobs that relate to childhood dreams or old hobbies. Buy and sell baseball cards online.Consider a job that enables you to continue or grow your expertise in a certain area. Working at a nursery or teach at a local community college.Do you love fishing, cooking, golfing, traveling, spelunking, law enforcement? There is a creative solution to working as a retiree in almost any industry, especially if you have a comfortable financial lifestyle already.If you can afford to sacrifice income for a rewarding job and vitality, than volunteering is certainly an option.
There is never enough people to fill all the worthy causes in the world, starting with hospitals, schools, libraries, churches, parks, zoos, international relief organizations, and so much moreIf you just want to do something, anything…you can find a company that actively recruits seniors. You may be surprised to find everyone from McDonalds to MetLife wants to employ older people. Why? The AARP has developed a program that partners with companies who encourage experience and leadership from older Americans.
View the Original article
A ‘Perfect Storm’ Helped Create Health Care Reform in Our Country
CanadaRetirement Living Submitted by szadmin on Wed, 10/05/2011 - 08:00
Browsing our Museum of Civilization’s time-line series, you can’t help but think that the ‘perfect conditions’ meteorologist Bob Case described to author S. Junger, who was researching a book about a real-life hurricane, is eerily similar of what happened between 1914 and 1918 in our own country to help create health care reform.
Canada faced extraordinary circumstances from four different situations. Each was overwhelming, combined they formed a ‘perfect storm’. The consequences forced ordinary Canadians to demand change.
Looking back, 1914, Canada was a colony in the British Empire, population approximately 7.5 million, many of whom were recent immigrants. Alberta and Saskatchewan were the newest provinces created in 1905; Newfoundland was still a separate colony. Canada had 8 medical schools with 1,792 students in all--321 doctors graduated that year and the majority went into private practice as general practitioners.
Four ‘perfect storm’ conditions converged.
WW1 exposed the poor health condition of our citizens!
That same year Britain declared war on Germany and doctors here discovered numerous health problems as Canadians enlisted (active tuberculosis, bad teeth, sexually transmitted infections). They also found many recruits unfit for duty because of past childhood ailments (infectious diseases such as smallpox, diphtheria, typhoid, scarlet fever, measles).
These findings, plus earlier reports of high maternal and infant death rates in our cities, launched calls for a national preventive services health department to be created to ease the problems of communicable diseases.
The conscription crisis forced compromise!
Winning the war was a priority for Conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden, thus he promised to maintain a field force of 500,000 soldiers and to supply food and munitions to the Allied forces.
But fewer men volunteered for overseas service as the war dragged on. Thus, in 1917, the government decided to introduce military conscription.
It became a controversial election issue and caused a split in the opposition Liberal Party led by Sir Wilfrid Laurier. The Borden government was forced into an alliance with some of the pro-conscription Liberals. One of the conditions the Liberals called for, so as to join a Union government led by Borden, was the formation of a federal health department.
The Halifax Explosion signalled our lack of emergency planning!
On December 6, 1917, once again the need for health-action was starkly revealed when the Halifax Explosion occurred. Two ships in the narrows of Halifax military harbour (one of the world’s greatest natural harbours) rubbed together, one carried explosives. The resulting flames caused a massive explosion and a huge tidal wave, all within 10 seconds! (This was the second biggest man-made explosion in history, the first is the bombing of Japan.)
1,963 died, 9,000 were injured and 25,000 became homeless as 2.5 kilometres were levelled. The situation worsened when a six-day blizzard hit immediately after the catastrophe. The “Shattered City” as it became informally known, urgently needed medical assistance, supplies and help. Canadians responded rapidly, but help came more swiftly from Massachusetts. (Halifax still sends Boston a Xmas tree every year in thanks for their support.)
At the same time, the services needed to deal with the orphans, the blind and the disabled from this disaster were also required for the 160,000 returning wounded servicemen.
As a result, the Department of Soldiers’ Civil Re-establishment was created in 1918 to run convalescent hospitals, sanatoria and homes, pay disability allowances, operate an artificial limb and surgical appliance factory, work with out-patients with tuberculosis, dental and mental health conditions, help servicemen find jobs, occupational therapy was pioneered in these hospitals....
Up until then, Canadians had been expected to pay for their own care or seek aid from municipal or provincial facilities. Now, for the first time, the federal government was helping fund health services.
An influenza pandemic revealed the limits of our system!
Then during the final battles in the spring of 1918, a new enemy appeared. ‘Spanish flu’ (a subtype of avian strain H1N1) attacked troops on both sides of the conflict. The disease quickly struck our troops overseas plus those in camps at home.
(Note: The pandemic lasted from March 1918 to June 1920, between 50 and 100 million, about 3% of the world's population of 1.6 billion at that time, died of the disease making it the deadliest natural disaster in human history.)
The outbreak spread to our civilian population, killing many of our young adults between 20 and 45. Communities rallied to provide food, bedding, fuel and care to those ill, but the horrifying speed of the epidemic clearly highlighted our country’s need for more health care professionals, facilities and medical research.
The resulting loss of 50,000 of our young men and women to the flu in addition to the 60,000 war dead prompted Canadians to demand government action to protect up-coming generations from similar suffering.
Meanwhile: New political parties were being formed, such as the United Farmers of Alberta and the National Progressive Party, because of growing differences between urban and rural needs. Several of these new provincial parties supported public health measures that would improve access by all to health services.
The upshot: These 4 crises-driven factors contributed significantly to the establishment of our federal Department of Health in 1919!
**I’d like to acknowledge The Canadian Museum of Civilization (a fascinating educational website) for the information in this article, as I have extracted many of the researched parts almost verbatim from their excellent time line series. Visit my website to connect directly to Canadian Museum of Civilization’s complete story, ‘History of Health Care in Canada, 1914 to 2007’. View the Original article
Browsing our Museum of Civilization’s time-line series, you can’t help but think that the ‘perfect conditions’ meteorologist Bob Case described to author S. Junger, who was researching a book about a real-life hurricane, is eerily similar of what happened between 1914 and 1918 in our own country to help create health care reform.
Canada faced extraordinary circumstances from four different situations. Each was overwhelming, combined they formed a ‘perfect storm’. The consequences forced ordinary Canadians to demand change.
Looking back, 1914, Canada was a colony in the British Empire, population approximately 7.5 million, many of whom were recent immigrants. Alberta and Saskatchewan were the newest provinces created in 1905; Newfoundland was still a separate colony. Canada had 8 medical schools with 1,792 students in all--321 doctors graduated that year and the majority went into private practice as general practitioners.
Four ‘perfect storm’ conditions converged.
WW1 exposed the poor health condition of our citizens!
That same year Britain declared war on Germany and doctors here discovered numerous health problems as Canadians enlisted (active tuberculosis, bad teeth, sexually transmitted infections). They also found many recruits unfit for duty because of past childhood ailments (infectious diseases such as smallpox, diphtheria, typhoid, scarlet fever, measles).
These findings, plus earlier reports of high maternal and infant death rates in our cities, launched calls for a national preventive services health department to be created to ease the problems of communicable diseases.
The conscription crisis forced compromise!
Winning the war was a priority for Conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden, thus he promised to maintain a field force of 500,000 soldiers and to supply food and munitions to the Allied forces.
But fewer men volunteered for overseas service as the war dragged on. Thus, in 1917, the government decided to introduce military conscription.
It became a controversial election issue and caused a split in the opposition Liberal Party led by Sir Wilfrid Laurier. The Borden government was forced into an alliance with some of the pro-conscription Liberals. One of the conditions the Liberals called for, so as to join a Union government led by Borden, was the formation of a federal health department.
The Halifax Explosion signalled our lack of emergency planning!
On December 6, 1917, once again the need for health-action was starkly revealed when the Halifax Explosion occurred. Two ships in the narrows of Halifax military harbour (one of the world’s greatest natural harbours) rubbed together, one carried explosives. The resulting flames caused a massive explosion and a huge tidal wave, all within 10 seconds! (This was the second biggest man-made explosion in history, the first is the bombing of Japan.)
1,963 died, 9,000 were injured and 25,000 became homeless as 2.5 kilometres were levelled. The situation worsened when a six-day blizzard hit immediately after the catastrophe. The “Shattered City” as it became informally known, urgently needed medical assistance, supplies and help. Canadians responded rapidly, but help came more swiftly from Massachusetts. (Halifax still sends Boston a Xmas tree every year in thanks for their support.)
At the same time, the services needed to deal with the orphans, the blind and the disabled from this disaster were also required for the 160,000 returning wounded servicemen.
As a result, the Department of Soldiers’ Civil Re-establishment was created in 1918 to run convalescent hospitals, sanatoria and homes, pay disability allowances, operate an artificial limb and surgical appliance factory, work with out-patients with tuberculosis, dental and mental health conditions, help servicemen find jobs, occupational therapy was pioneered in these hospitals....
Up until then, Canadians had been expected to pay for their own care or seek aid from municipal or provincial facilities. Now, for the first time, the federal government was helping fund health services.
An influenza pandemic revealed the limits of our system!
Then during the final battles in the spring of 1918, a new enemy appeared. ‘Spanish flu’ (a subtype of avian strain H1N1) attacked troops on both sides of the conflict. The disease quickly struck our troops overseas plus those in camps at home.
(Note: The pandemic lasted from March 1918 to June 1920, between 50 and 100 million, about 3% of the world's population of 1.6 billion at that time, died of the disease making it the deadliest natural disaster in human history.)
The outbreak spread to our civilian population, killing many of our young adults between 20 and 45. Communities rallied to provide food, bedding, fuel and care to those ill, but the horrifying speed of the epidemic clearly highlighted our country’s need for more health care professionals, facilities and medical research.
The resulting loss of 50,000 of our young men and women to the flu in addition to the 60,000 war dead prompted Canadians to demand government action to protect up-coming generations from similar suffering.
Meanwhile: New political parties were being formed, such as the United Farmers of Alberta and the National Progressive Party, because of growing differences between urban and rural needs. Several of these new provincial parties supported public health measures that would improve access by all to health services.
The upshot: These 4 crises-driven factors contributed significantly to the establishment of our federal Department of Health in 1919!
**I’d like to acknowledge The Canadian Museum of Civilization (a fascinating educational website) for the information in this article, as I have extracted many of the researched parts almost verbatim from their excellent time line series. Visit my website to connect directly to Canadian Museum of Civilization’s complete story, ‘History of Health Care in Canada, 1914 to 2007’. View the Original article
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