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1. The majority of older Australian’s continue to live in their own homes, with or without support. Discuss 2 advantages and 2 challenges of older people remaining in their own home. (200 words) |
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Response: Advantages: 1. As per Factor, Heller and Janicki (2012), elderly people fear loss of independence more than their death and hence, in home with or without care support they will be able to retain their independence. They will not be dependent on someone for smaller decisions and it will be beneficial for their self-esteemed. 2. The second advantage of living in home for elderly will be companionship and presence of family members around them. It has been seen that loneliness is the primary concern of elderly living in home healthcare centers thus, if they live in their homes with their family members around them, their mental health condition will be improved (Liang & Luo 2012). Challenges 1. Living at home at such crucial point of life can affect the physical condition of the patient. They can become prone to falls due to unavailable support or absence of any family member around them. Therefore, conducting activities of daily life without any support and becoming probe to falls is the primary challenge of living in home in old age (Factor, Heller & Janicki 2012). 2. If the care support is available, in home care facility, it cannot provide support to the patient the complete day. Therefore, unavailability of care providers throughout the day is another challenge of living in home in old age (Wiles et al. 2012). |
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2. The My Aged Care website is a central repository for information about aged care services in Australia. Discuss how an older person can find out about services available through My Aged Care. (200 words) |
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Response: To collect information about the services available in the My Aged Care facility, older adults need to visit the website of the facility where in simpler sections, all the informations are arranged. The website provides four steps to understand the type of care and level of assistance elderly people required and the four steps are learning about the care process and registration, assessment, setting up service and managing the service as per the requirement (Australian government 2018). Further there is an emergency service available where the person in need of care can directly contact the care facility. Besides these, the website provides a helpline number using which the people in need of care can directly talk to the executives and understand the details of the service (Duckett & Willcox 2015). Further, the website also provides cultural and lingual specificity to care process and segregates the care process for aboriginals, people speaking other languages, people of LGBTQ community, veterans, people living in remote and rural areas and so on, determining the wide array of the service. Moreover, for people who do not receive any governmental aids are also been provided with private care facility and a detailed information is also available on the website (King, Wei & Howe 2013). |
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3. Identify one organization applicable to the older person and discuss how it informs the support and protection of older people in Australia. (200 words) |
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Response: National Aged care Advocacy Program is the program under the organization Aging and Aged Care Australia that helps the elderly population by providing them information about their care facility and provision of care in simple methods (Australian Government Department of Health 2018). Further this program also provides a 24×7 service to the elderly population by providing them with proper guidance about care service and process (King, Wei & Howe 2013). This service is widespread in Australia and through its nine service organizations, it helps elderly population throughout Australia. Besides these, it also provides a detailed analysis of the government aided services available in the locality of the elder people seeking help so that with proper government aided care, the health condition of elderly population could be improved. However, these governmental aids are available only in higher level of care. The organization also involved the commonwealth health support so that support to elderly people staying at their homes becomes easier to access (Australian Government Department of Health 2018). Further, this organization also provides a detailed suggestion about the future care needs, retirement plans and available services so that people are aware of the assistance or services they will require and they can decide between home healthcare or community or culturally supportive care they would be requiring for their holistic health improvement (Bauer et al. 2013). |
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4. View video 1.1, where Ray talks about attending the men’s shed. How would attending a meaningful leisure activity, such as the men’s shed, enhance the physical and psychological health of older men? (200 words) /5 marks |
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Response: The video explains the importance of physical activities that help the elderly population by proving their mental and psychological peace, positivity and satisfaction in mental and physical wellbeing and helps them to combat loneliness. It is important for them to spent leisure times as it invokes positive emotions in them that ultimately help them with managing their depression, survive the traumatic situations and stressful situations in life events (Bauer et al. 2014). The organization men’s shed Australia provides the older adults with the opportunity to carry out several constructive activities that helps them to retain their self-confidence and self-esteemed. These activities are creating crafts, mementoes, making furniture, different art and crafts. Through these, the facility helps the older adults to communicate with each other, increasing their ability to socialize with people of similar age as well as with such activities they provide them financial strength that help them to maintain their integrity (Materne, Luszcz & Goodwin?Smith 2014). Therefore, by enhancing physical activity, constructive nature, spirituality, socializing ability and evoking good and positive thoughts the organization helps the older adults to stay physically and mentally fit and stable and also make them psychologically strong. Besides these, it also evokes the sense of connectivity and togetherness among the people living in the organization (Munyisia, Yu & Hailey 2012). |
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5. What age-related changes contribute to increased risk of constipation? What strategies can the nurse use to assess, prevent and manage constipation? (200 words) |
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Response: With increasing age, there are several changes that the old body goes through that ultimately make the person prone to constipation (Woodward 2012). With age, the ability of human body to retain water decreases, leading to decreased water content of stool and other body excretions. Further different anatomical changes in the gastrointestinal tract, decreased digestive juices decreases the functionality of the gastrointestinal system leading to generation of mild to acute constipation (Woodward 2012). Further, researchers revealed that changes in the intestinal wall atrophy, persistent chronic disease, excess medications, peristalsis and less consumption of water can also be the reason behind constipation in older age. Strategies to decrease constipation in older adults: The first strategy to manage constipation related condition in older adults will be modifying their diet and water consumption so that the excreta can easily pass through the intestinal tract without any physical strain (Gandell et al. 2013). Besides these, the patient’s condition will be assessed by collecting his medical history, dietary habits and presence of any other chronic disease. after that for diet related management, patients diet will be modified with dietary fibers, green vegetables, and balance portions of protein, carbohydrate and fat as well as the patient will be asked to consume 3 to 5 liters of water everyday so that the body could be hydrated properly. Besides these, patient will be asked to maintain a moderate level of physical activity including several exercises so that proper bowel movement could be achieved (Coggrave & Norton 2013). |
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6. The Safe Environments game was used in the week 6 learning materials. What did you learn about assessing for risks and hazards by interacting with this game? (200 words) |
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Response: It is important for the elderly population to be engaged in some positive and constructive activities while their care process so that they can stay positive and calm in entire care process. The safe environment game was such an activity that was conducted in the aged care facility as a positive activity (Buchman et al. 2012). However, while assessing the game, it was found that it contain several risk and hazards that had the potential to harm the elderly. In the safe environment game, the older adults had to perform activities such as gardening, planting and other that needs the usage of sharp objects (Landi et al. 2013). These objects has the ability to harm the older adults and if not used carefully can create a serious health condition too. Further, while gardening, there is a possibility that the older adults will be exposed to the sunlight, dust and dirt that can affect their physical health immensely. Therefore these are the health hazards and risk factors that are associated with the safe environment game and could harm the older adults if not performed carefully (Ambrose, Paul & Hausdorff 2013). |
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7. Page 48 of your textbook lists several challenges confronting aged care in Australia. Discuss the difficulty attracting graduate health professionals in aged care in Australia, using current literature to support your response. Identify strategies that could be enacted to overcome this challenge. (200 words) |
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Response: Attracting fresh graduates in the aged care sector is the responsibility of the health department by providing them with several facilities and providing them with proper placement service after the completion of their course (Bernoth & Winkler 2016). These are important as this factor determines the number of fresh graduates that will be joining aged care as their career. Besides these, it is important for the registered nurses who are experienced in such services mentor the fresh graduates about aged care facilities and the pros and cons so that while placements students can understand the career choice appropriate for them (Bacsu et al. 2012). However, in the absence of these, the graduates will not be able to understand the benefits of such program. Besides these it is important for the teaching staff of nursing courses to create a positive and encouraging environment for aged care settings so that students can develop interest in such crucial services and in later career placements can chose them as their profession (Arai et al. 2015). Finally, people choosing aged care nursing as their career option should be provided with proper remuneration so that the number of resignations of aged care nursing professionals could be reduced (Bernoth & Winkler 2016). |
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Reference List |
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Ambrose, A.F., Paul, G. & Hausdorff, J.M., 2013. Risk factors for falls among older adults: a review of the literature. Maturitas, 75(1), pp.51-61. DOI: Arai, H., Ouchi, Y., Toba, K., Endo, T., Shimokado, K., Tsubota, K., Matsuo, S., Mori, H., Yumura, W., Yokode, M. & Rakugi, H., 2015. J apan as the front?runner of super?aged societies: Perspectives from medicine and medical care in J apan. Geriatrics & gerontology international, 15(6), pp.673-687. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/ggi.12450 Australian Government Department of Health, Aging and Aged Care., 2018. Australian government. 2018. My aged care. This is the place to start. Access date: 12.9.2018. Bacsu, J.R., Jeffery, B., Johnson, S., Martz, D., Novik, N. & Abonyi, S., 2012. Healthy aging in place: Supporting rural seniors’ health needs. Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care, 12(2), pp.77-87.DOI: https://doi.org/10.14574/ojrnhc.v12i2.52 Bauer, M., Fetherstonhaugh, D., Tarzia, L. & Chenco, C., 2014. Staff–family relationships in residential aged care facilities: The views of residents’ family members and care staff. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 33(5), pp.564-585. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0733464812468503 Bauer, M., Fetherstonhaugh, D., Tarzia, L., Nay, R., Wellman, D. & Beattie, E., 2013. ‘I always look under the bed for a man’. Needs and barriers to the expression of sexuality in residential aged care: the views of residents with and without dementia. Psychology & Sexuality, 4(3), pp.296-309. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/19419899.2012.713869 Bernoth, M. & Winkler, D., 2016. Healthy ageing and aged care. OUPANZ. Buchman, A.S., Boyle, P.A., Yu, L., Shah, R.C., Wilson, R.S. & Bennett, D.A., 2012. Total daily physical activity and the risk of AD and cognitive decline in older adults. Neurology, 78(17), pp.1323-1329. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0b013e3182535d35 Coggrave, M. & Norton, C., 2013. Management of faecal incontinence and constipation in adults with central neurological diseases. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (12). DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD002115.pub4 Duckett, S. & Willcox, S., 2015. The Australian health care system (No. Ed. 5). Oxford University Press. Factor, A., Heller, T. & Janicki, M., 2012. Bridging the aging and developmental disabilities service networks: Challenges and best practices. Chicago, IL: Institute on Disability and Human Development, University of Illinois at Chicago. Gandell, D., Straus, S.E., Bundookwala, M., Tsui, V. & Alibhai, S.M., 2013. Treatment of constipation in older people. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 185(8), pp.663-670. King, D., Wei, Z. & Howe, A., 2013. Work satisfaction and intention to leave among direct care workers in community and residential aged care in Australia. Journal of aging & social policy, 25(4), pp.301-319. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/08959420.2013.816166 King, D., Wei, Z. & Howe, A., 2013. Work satisfaction and intention to leave among direct care workers in community and residential aged care in Australia. Journal of aging & social policy, 25(4), pp.301-319. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/08959420.2013.816166 Landi, F., Cruz-Jentoft, A.J., Liperoti, R., Russo, A., Giovannini, S., Tosato, M., Capoluongo, E., Bernabei, R. & Onder, G., 2013. Sarcopenia and mortality risk in frail older persons aged 80 years and older: results from ilSIRENTE study. Age and ageing, 42(2), pp.203-209. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afs194 Liang, J. & Luo, B., 2012. Toward a discourse shift in social gerontology: From successful aging to harmonious aging. Journal of Aging Studies, 26(3), pp.327-334. DOI: Materne, C.J., Luszcz, M.A. & Goodwin?Smith, I., 2014. Increasing constructive engagement and positive affect for residents with severe and very severe dementia through group?based activities. Australasian journal on ageing, 33(1), pp.E7-E10. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajag.12127 Munyisia, E.N., Yu, P. & Hailey, D., 2012. The impact of an electronic nursing documentation system on efficiency of documentation by caregivers in a residential aged care facility. Journal of clinical nursing, 21(19pt20), pp.2940-2948. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2702.2012.04157.x Wiles, J.L., Leibing, A., Guberman, N., Reeve, J. & Allen, R.E., 2012. The meaning of “aging in place” to older people. The gerontologist, 52(3), pp.357-366. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnr098 Woodward, S., 2012. Assessment and management of constipation in older people. Nursing Older People (through 2013), 24(5), p.21. |
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