Elderly Should Be Home with Their Family Instead of the Nursing Home
Since 1943 Abraham Maslow presented five stages of needs as a human. The first stage is physiological needs: food, water, warmth, rest. Second is safety needs: security, safety. The third is belongingness and love needs: desire to be close to family and friends and belong to a society. Fourth is esteem needs: prestige and feeling of accomplishment. And the fifth one is self-actualization: achieving one’s full potential.(McLeod, 2017). In upshot of all elderly is one of the groups that needed the most basics needs to function well until the end of their life. Despite the fact that is considers letting the elder parents stay at nursing home for better assistance and also high-end technology will enhance a healthy living for older adults it is still a safe choice for parents remain at home with their family rather than living in the long-term care. The more former elderly gets, the more fragile they are. Therefore home would be the best place to provide them all the best option from the basic needs from their own home, in the psychology needs they have their own family and friends, and from both of those needs above the self-fulfillment needs will be achieved. For elderly to gets to those needs, the previous requirements have to be fulfilled, and not just to get it fulfill but also each level needs a satisfaction to get to the next level to achieve to the full potential.
Pros of the Issue
As people ages, their body’s function begins to decrease. Enhancing the physical health of elderly will increase a better chance of living more comfortable. When an old person is living in their own home, there is less chance of falls because they got familiar to their home arrangement. As compared to the nursing home safety on the risk of falls, the supervision of their family member will always be the better choice for each elderly. In support of staying at home, bullying from staffs to elderly clients is one most upsetting situation that continuing happens in the long-term care. According to the reports of CBC News “The numbers show that staff-on-resident abuse and neglect increased by nearly 80 percent from 2011 to 2016 in both the Mississauga-Halton and Toronto Central Local Health Integration Networks.” (Pelley, 2018, para.6).
Along with physical health, cognitive is a critical part to concern about an elderly’s life. In older ages, they tend to lose a lot of social networks that they used to have while they might increase a chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Enhancing a happier environment like staying with their loved one will be a better option to keeps their cognitive prolong longer as they age. In Canada, people around the age of 60 and up starting to take their retirement vacation. According to discover the lifespan book: In this period of late adulthood which is the 60 years old and beyond, they might be losing their independent and that leading to the self-withdrawal with the society, slowly they are becoming less interest in life. (Feldman & Landry, 2015). According to the health resource of Toronto central health line: Nowadays there are many senior communities has formed which can pick up and drop of clients at the end of the day. They provided a “social, recreational, and therapeutic activities for frail older adults in a group setting for part of the day, helps to support family caregivers who provide day-to-day care, monthly outings” (West Toronto Support Services, 2017, para.7).
Cons of the Issue
Although, living at home with family is better for the elderly’s health but, there some hidden reason that might be relating to an elderly who do not have a family and living alone. According to the blog of dangers of senior living alone state:
The Administration on Aging reports that about 29% or 11.3 million older adults lived alone in 2010. At the same time, it estimated that over 12% of seniors 65 and older — more than 5 million — need assistance with long-term care to perform activities of daily life. (Stevenson, 2017, para.4)
For those exceptional cases, long-term care is one of the best options to receive all the needs such as food, shelter, receive immediate attention from all the professional healthcare provider like a doctor, nurses, personal support worker and other physicians. In the nursing home clients have a secure place to live, the environment they are living in also having others clients, and that can become a friendly environment as their family. (Kensington Gardens, 2017)
My Position on the Issue
I believe at the age while we are young parents was taken care and support us for each moment in life until we grow up. Every day we see that our parents are becoming fragile. That recall our young aged when our parents spend all their time just to fulfill our future. We all wanted to put the love while taking care for them the way they did when we were baby. Not just yet when we grow up, whenever our life face difficulty parents are the people we want to call and always wanted to be protected the same ways as we were little. Same thing here as parents ageing they are getting weaker and slowly becoming fragile that still needed supervision all time. They might not want to interfere in the life after marriage of their children and might agree to live in the long-term care but loves is the only thing people would want to feel. Why would anyone wanted to live with a stranger and slowly die in there? Unless the elderly do not have a family to live with, then nursing home is a better option for them to live.
Providing adequate nutrition and secure self which can be preventing the risk of falls with immediate medical help would be the best support for elder’s needs. Between family’s home and nursing home, both can help with all of those needs. But, Long-term care is the place they can have their neighbour as friends but it is hard to see children if they do have their family due to travelling is far they might not seeing their parents often. Which mean home would be a better place or elderly who have a family can have a better life with the supervision of their children at their own house and can have an alternative help with different activities such as going to a senior community during the morning and come home with family at night.
According to “When the caregiving dynamic is complicated” Brenda says, bring in some sources that can help children who are currently facing the difficulty of taking care for parents at home, bring in an expert, find a good counsellor, who can help to sort out any miscommunication between parents and the children. (Brenda, 2018, para.8,9,13). Besides that, hire a professional in the home is always available for someday that the children need support like personal care and hygiene, physician assistants and nursing and therapy. (Right at home Canada, n.d)
References
Brenda. (2018, February 26). When care giving dynamic is complicated web log post.
Retrieved from https://www.rightathomecanada.com/blog/when-the-caregiving-dynamic-is-complicated
Feldman, S. R., ; Landry, O. (2015). Discover the lifespan (2nd cdn ed.). New Jersey, USA:
Pearson.
In home care services. (n.d.) Right at home Canada Advertisement. Retrieved from
https://www.rightathomecanada.com/services
Kensington gardens. (2017). Toronto Central Health Line: Long-term care home
Advertisement. Retrieved from http://www.torontocentralhealthline.ca/displayService.aspx?id=133911
McLeod, S. A. (2017). Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Retrieved from
www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html
Pelley, L. (2018 January, 26). Reports of staff abusing residents up nearly 80% in GTA long-
term care homes. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ltc-abuse-gta-1.4503389
Stevenson, S. (2017, May 4). Danger of seniors living alone Web log post. Retrieved from
https://www.aplaceformom.com/blog/2013-4-1-dangers-ofseniors-living-alone/
West Toronto Support Sevices. (2017). Toronto Central Health Line: Adult day program
Advertisement. Retrieved from http://www.torontocentralhealthline.ca/displayService.aspx?id=121146
