Family and Community Responsibility and Community Home-Based Care

Subject: Geriatric Nursing (Theory)

Overview

Regardless of whether the pregnancies were carried to term, a woman's gravida counts the number of pregnancies she has experienced. The count includes any current pregnancies, if any. Parity, sometimes known as "para," refers to the total number of births that occurred beyond 20 weeks, including stillbirths and live births. For the purposes of this notation, multiple births such as twin or triplet pregnancies count as one birth. If your cycle is a regular 28-day cycle, you can calculate this by adding nine calendar months and seven days to the first day of your last menstrual period. The term "gestational age" describes the time of pregnancy. The way a fetus lies in the womb is referred to as the posture or presentation. And the presenting part is the first part to be seen during labor. This phrase refers to an arbitrary point selected for each fetal component to indicate its location in relation to the various quadrants of the mother's pelvis.

Note
Things to remember

Family and community responsibility/support

Dramatic changes are being brought about in family life, the type and scope of interventions required to assist an aging population, and our perceptions of the relative contributions of family and community to meeting these requirements as a result of the expanding older population. Although the majority of older people manage independently with just the routine help that family members give one another, an increasing percentage of the very elderly and people who are frail and incapacitated need more intensive social care. The phrase "social care" is frequently used interchangeably with "formal community services," but the idea is more expansive and includes informal family care as well. Social care focuses on needs that are essential for independence, including support with daily living activities and personal care, as well as socialization and self-development. Currently, older persons prefer social care to be provided in a family setting, and they only seek out official community interventions when their families are unable to provide the necessary support. A more carefully crafted collaboration between family and community will be necessary in the future, though, given the rise in the number of working women, the restructuring of the family, and shifting opinions about the community's function as a provider of services.

Community home-based care

Adult Day Care

A more popular community-based alternative is adult day care. In a group context, it offers a variety of social and support services. The majority of adult day care facilities are located in community centers or churches. While primary caregivers are at work, adult day care is frequently utilized to provide for adults who require monitoring and assistance with daily living tasks (such as patients with dementia). It might also provide caretakers with a temporary break.

Adult day care providers may provide a range of services, from straightforward non-skilled custodial care to more complex skilled services. A registered nurse, for instance, can be on hand to provide on-site health services, clinical assessment and monitoring, and assistance with medication administration.

Day hospitals

A wide range of specialized nursing services, including as chemotherapy, injections, and intense rehabilitation, are offered by day hospitals. The majority of day hospitals are located in long-term care hospitals or rehabilitative facilities. This enables the patient to spend the evening at home while enabling the healthcare practitioner to benefit from on-site professional skills and resources. Medicare offers coverage for certain services with criteria akin to those for home healthcare.

Two types of patients are most frequently treated in day hospitals: those who require numerous types of rehabilitation and those who have psychiatric problems. According to a systematic study of day hospital care, they outperformed alternative sources of care for several conventional health outcomes. In actuality, patients receiving treatment in day hospitals typically experience less functional impairment and less hospitalization.

Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE)

Acute and long-term care for frail older persons is provided via the relatively new Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE), which pools resources from Medicare and Medicaid (in participating states). PACE is able to offer customary coverage for acute, rehabilitative, home, and institutional care thanks to this coordinated financing. Participants in the PACE program must, however, adhere to state-set standards for their need for nursing-home level of care. In 29 states as of 2010, there are 75 PACE programs.

PACE wants to maintain participants in the neighborhood for as long as it is safe, practical, and financially viable. The system makes use of a group of medical professionals who are familiar with the patient and carers and are able to offer comprehensive care whether the patient is at home, in the hospital, in an alternative living arrangement, or in an institution. Adult day care, respite care, transportation, prescription coverage, rehabilitation (including ongoing physical and occupational therapy), hearing aids, eyeglasses, and a host of other advantages are also possible. Additionally, the scheme is adaptable enough to cover non-medical expenses in exceptional situations. The healthcare team takes care of older persons' complicated social demands in addition to their medical requirements.