It is good when you have the opportunity to take care of your elderly people right at home, without worrying about the workplace, registration of long term care insurance in New York City, and other services that Galaxy Home Care will definitely provide you. Unfortunately, the reality is that some families are forced to look for a place for the elderly where they can not only take care of them but also provide professional medical care in a timely manner.
Where is the best place to take care of the elderly, and what do you need to know about boarding schools and nursing homes?
Difficulties and features of caring for the elderly – what kind of care may be needed?
Caring for an elderly person is not only about cooking or reading books. This is a whole range of tasks, sometimes very complex, given the characteristics of the elderly and the psyche.
Among the usual tasks of a nurse or relative:
- To carry out hygiene procedures (wash the elderly person or help to wash, etc.).
- Monitor the timely administration of medications.
- Take them to the doctor and to the procedures.
- Buy food and medicines, cook and feed, if necessary.
- Clean the room, and ventilate it.
- Wash and iron the laundry.
- Take an elderly person for a walk.
- And others.
These are purely technical tasks that relatives themselves can usually cope with.
But caring for the elderly has its own characteristics
- To accept an elderly person with all its disadvantages, with irritability, with imposed thoughts, and even with senile dementia is extremely difficult.
- Memory impairment. An elderly person can not only confuse events with their own past but also immediately forget current information.
- Elderly people are vulnerable and vulnerable like children. Communication with them requires great tact.
- Often the elderly suffer from serious illnesses and sleep disorders.
- With age, problems with the spine appear, kidney function is impaired, and night enuresis is not uncommon.
- Gradual loss of hearing and vision, reaction speed, balance, etc. causes injuries and fractures that do not heal as quickly as in young people.
- Old people need a special diet and regular physiotherapy procedures.
Caring for the elderly on your own
It is important to note that most often not even children, but grandchildren take care of grandparents, according to statistics.
But, the older the elderly person, the more he becomes like a child who needs to be looked after almost around the clock. Typically, young relatives are simply torn between their lives and the need to help elderly parents.
The situation becomes difficult and sometimes simply unbearable when physical health issues are added to mental health difficulties. Elderly people lose their memory and go nowhere in just slippers; forget to turn off the gas or iron; run naked around the apartment; freak out in every possible way, scare their own great-grandchildren, etc.
Of course, not every family can withstand the round-the-clock supervision of an elderly relative – especially if he begins to resemble a time bomb. Therefore, in cases with mental problems, you have to agree to the option of supervising the elderly in a special institution, where they are always under supervision and will not be able to harm themselves or others.
Few people can afford to quit their job to take care of an elderly relative, and not everyone can boast of the necessary medical knowledge, so the only option for people who categorically do not want to leave their elderly in nursing homes is a nurse.
The advantages of private boarding houses:
- No need to wait in line.
- The boarding house is more like a sanatorium than a hospital.
- You can arrange for an old man in a separate room if he does not want to share it with anyone.
- In a good boarding house, the elderly do not feel abandoned and lonely.
- Normal nutrition, treatment, and a wide range of rehabilitation procedures are provided.
- Care is provided that even the most professional and round-the-clock nurse cannot provide.
How to choose the right institution to care for elderly sick parents – all the selection criteria and requirements for the establishment
When choosing an institution in which your elderly relative will be looked after, pay attention to the following points:
- Living conditions: whether it will be comfortable in the boarding house/boarding school for an elderly person. Are there ramps, and special beds, are there no thresholds in the doors and showers, are there handrails in the corridors and bathrooms, what do they feed the elderly, etc.?
- Whether medical care is provided around the clock, whether there is a therapist and which doctors are present on the staff on a permanent basis.
- Is there a landscaped area for walking, are their collective classes, concerts, etc. – how is the leisure of the elderly organized?
- What is included in the price? Carefully read the contract.
- Are there conditions for rehabilitation, and recovery after surgery? The presence of rehabilitation programs is one of the “quality marks” of such institutions.
- Is it possible to visit a relative at any time, or is the institution closed to outsiders and only certain hours are allocated for visits?
- Will the medical care that your relative needs be provided?
- How is the security system organized (surveillance, alarm, whether there are nurse call buttons, etc.)
- Are the premises clean, and are the staff tidy and polite?
Galaxy Home Care nursing home for the elderly
Really high-quality services and excellent living conditions are offered in the Galaxy Home Care nursing home. The planning of the center takes into account all the requirements for comfort, safety, and convenience of the elderly, which made it possible to create a favorable living environment for all, without exception, guests.
In an atmosphere of home comfort, the elderly receive the necessary medical support, have the opportunity to undergo rehabilitation courses after illnesses, and, of course, socially and psychologically adapt to life in a new format.
To assess the current state of each resident, modern tests are used to evaluate their ability to self-care, memory and orientation in time, and emotional state. This helps to choose the necessary level of assistance for each grandparent.
All guests have the opportunity to live in comfortable apartments for 1–3 persons with comfortable personal furniture and a private bathroom. The diet of five meals a day is created taking into account the needs and preferences of the elderly.
