Introduction
Having to care for an aging parent, relative, spouse or friend can arise difficult challenges. Imagine that all of a sudden you are responsible for an elder who needs care.
Caregiving is the act of providing unpaid assistance and support to family members or acquantices who have physical, physiological, or developmental needs. Caring for others generally takes on three different forms; instrumental, emotional and informational caring.
Elder care can come in many different forms. Care can be available in home, senior living facilities or through hospice. In home care usually entails the elder still living at home while doing as much as regular activity as they can while caregivers stop in occasionally to help with needs. Senior living facilities provide older adults with a safe, supportive and readily available care staff to assist them with their needs. Lastly, hospice care involves end of life care-meaning making sure the individual is as comfortable and happy as they can be while doing little preventive care.
It can be difficult when to decide for a person when the right time is to move on to each step or to intervene at all. This webquest will include resources available to family members going through this part of their life, specifics to remember when dealing with elders and their care.
Task
When is the "right" time?
To answer that, there really is not a perfect time. It is basically asking someone to decide when their elder is not able to do the things they used to. Moments during this can affect families with sadness, anger, relief and many other emotions. Below are a couple of websites which may help ease the process and give family members a better understanding.
http://www.eldercare.gov/Eldercare.NET/Public/Index.aspx
-Within this website is an option for family members & elders to research different facilities and care available to them around their area.
http://www.aplaceformom.com/senior-care-resources/articles/moving-elder…
-This website helps with the ease of helping family members through the process. It includes how to confront elder, different approaches to come by and how to deal with issues that may arise.
What is the "right" care?
Each individual is different therefore evaluating what care to provide to each is a process and based off a variety of circumstances. For example for in home care their home must be suitable to provide safety for wheelchairs-wide enough hallways, ramps, etc. Some elders may not be impaired at all physically and need assistance physiological therefore in home care would be an available option. Below are websites that explain each type of care; in home care, senior living facilities & hospice.
https://www.caring.com/local/in-home-care
-This website shows the costs, what to expect and how to adjust to in-home care.
-This website includes information on long term care facilities and where the best facilities are loacted for the elders specific needs.
http://www.nhpco.org/learn-about-end-life-care
-Lastly, this site explains and provides information on end of life care/hospice and where to go next.
Process
Conclusion
I have been a Certified Nursing Assistant for the past three years working in a long term care facility. I see these kind of issues arise all the time with residents and family members. This mini-webquest only provides the minimum of what to expect during this crucial time of a family members life. Each family has a different story and each individual has their own needs. What to remember is to keep in mind the happiness of the elder individual. Yes they may not be able to help their self anymore; however, making sure their happiness is there should be a number one priority.
