Aging takes its toll, even on the healthiest older people. We love our independence. We don’t need to provide it up. Almost all respondents said they desired to stay at home so long as possible. But staying at home without help may be very dangerous.
Security issues
Here is an example of an elder who’s fiercely independent and needs to stay in her own residence throughout her life. But she takes serious security risks every single day. She has already had a number of falls and fortunately has not suffered any broken bones.
The 78-year-old retired executive (RE) lives alone in her large house. The family is nearby, but nobody yet seems to know that religious education is unsafe under their current circumstances. She receives no assistance, although she requires it with quite a few activities of each day living (ADLs) corresponding to bathing, dressing, and incontinence issues. Years ago she took out long-term care insurance, a high-quality policy that insurers not offer. Her policy is offered and might provide her with the each day helper she needs. But the insurer’s bureaucracy makes it very difficult for her to access her well-deserved advantages. She tried unsuccessfully to get her advantages for 2 years because she didn’t understand get a licensed doctor to evaluate her needs and create what the insurer calls a care plan. Your doctor won’t do it. The nurse in her managed care practice won’t do it. She isn’t completely homebound, so Medicare won’t cover a nurse’s home health assessment. She had no idea solve the issue. She felt stuck.
Home care can assist you stay at home.
Receive insurance advantages
When she contacted us at AgingParents.com, a team of RN attorneys and geriatric psychologists, we addressed the insurance issues first. She needed that assessment, but who could do it? We asked questions. We spoke to her doctor. We learned that her granddaughter, who lives several hours away, is a newly licensed RN. Meeting along with her, RE and us was a primary step. We developed a schedule and a time for her granddaughter to return home. (I shall be there too). This assessment will happen and a care plan shall be created shortly. Based on our review of your policy, this can likely be enough to qualify for advantages.
In the meantime, she gets out and in of the bathtub every night to take a warm bath that helps her sleep. Every evening carries an important risk of falling. There are not any grab handles or other safety devices. Nursing care insurance doesn’t provide for these or similar safety precautions. Her doctor and staff were of no help in anyway in resolving this issue.
Through our research into available private, paid local resources locally, we identified a licensed occupational therapist who can come to your own home and determine make bathing safer. Whether it’s grab bars, a brand latest walk-in tub, a bath mat, or other accessibility recommendations, the emergency room can implement these recommendations. She has the means to pay them. This will help her maintain her independence and stay where she desires to stay – in her own residence.
The coordination of knowledge
With the granddaughter’s occupational therapy assessment and report, assessment and care plan (reviewed by me, a nursing home nurse), she’s going to meet the insurer’s requirements to receive her advantages. This must include a each day assistant to help with bathing, dressing, incontinence hygiene, cooking, and other activities. The emergency department is totally cognitively intact. She experiences each day pain and difficulty moving and can profit greatly from a consistent caregiver. She will have the ability to stay in her home with the suitable support provided. A fall leading to a hip fracture or other damage could derail that plan, but the security measures provided by each your personal resources and your insurance will maximize your possibilities of remaining independent.
The takeaways
For those that are usually not homebound, getting help at house is difficult. According to the emergency room doctor, Medicare doesn’t even allow a house care assessment to find out what an individual must be protected. If that sounds as ridiculous to you because it does to me, consider that Medicare will willingly pay for hospitalization and a nursing home can pay for post-hospital care, but won’t cover any provision for it impede Hospitalization within the emergency room in any respect!
- If your aging parent becomes frail or has difficulty with on a regular basis activities, Get help for them before a crisis occurs. If they resist, as many do, use any persuasive trick you possibly can consider to get them to just accept help.
- When crises corresponding to falls and broken bones occur, the burden of decision-making often falls on the family. It could be a very avoidable stress that nobody needs. Use this tactic to assist Convincing a stubborn elder to just accept that help is required can work: “Mom/Dad, please don’t burden us if you fall and hurt yourself. It can happen and it’s not fair to us.”
- When obstacles stand in the best way of really getting help, as within the case of the emergency room, offer to take part in problem solving. The emergency room is definitely willing to offer support in the shape of a nurse. But the obstacles that stood in her way thwarted her plans. I think that she may need ended up in a hospital if she hadn’t reached out to someone who could help her overcome the hurdles, i.e. the insurer’s strict requirements, to receive her advantages.
- No matter how independent your aging parents or other family members could also be, don’t assume that this can proceed over time. Watch for signs of decline. Ask specific questions, corresponding to “Are you having trouble getting in and out of your tub?”
- Finally, accept that change is inevitable for all of us who love our independence. Age can affect this, but with proper help lots of us won’t be forced to depart the house we would like to remain in.
