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Essay of falls in elder adults
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Home Care and Senior Mobility When your senior loved one develops mobility limitations, their life can be dramatically altered. This can lead to a number of physical and emotional issues. The main physical danger is falling, which is the number one health risk for seniors over the age of 65. In fact, two-thirds of all senior accidents are caused by falls. Emotionally, mobility limitations may lead to depression, social isolation, anger, anxiety, and so forth. Sadly, these are the very conditions that are linked to more severe medical conditions such as hypertension, stroke, heart disease, and dementia. If your senior loved on has lost or is losing their independence due to mobility issues, they may benefit from home care services. Home
In over-all, 65 years and older suffer from many geriatric symptoms, due to psychotropic and anti-psychotropic medications, including Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), mobility challenges, incontinence, poor balance, disorganization and confusion which all lead to high falls. According to a study in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, patients with the highest risk for falls presented with one or more of the following variables such as Parkinson’s syndrome, Dementia, female gender, mood stabilizers, cardiac arrhythmia, and ECT. Edmonson et. al established, “The Edmonson Psychiatric Fall Risk Assessment Tool (EPFRAT) specific to the psychiatric, geriatric population and found initial testing of EPFRAT to have higher sensitivity in assessing fall risk in the geri-psych inpatient population” (Edmonson, Robinson, & Hughes, 2011). This project purpose is to investigate and explore whether an Edmonson Fall risk assessment Toll decreases patient falls in inpatient geri-psych units. Stakeholders and Change
As people age, they face difficulties with seeing and also with mobility, declines in their physiological systems impact balance, range and speed. These physiological problems can result in falls, which tend to be really problematic for the elderly living alone at home. The Hendrich II Fall Risk Model (HFRM) was used on Mr. T.C to assess his fall risk; this tool is used in acute care facilities to estimate the risk for falls in adults (Hendrich, 2013). The client scored a 6, any score exceeding a 5 is considered a high risk for fall. Being a male is one of the predetermined risk points that make one susceptible of falling as well their symptomatic depression, both which the client falls under. The Get-Up-and-Go Test is also a predetermined risk factor of HFRM; it determines the client’s ability to rise from a seated position. It took the client 3 attempts to fully stand up from a seated position.
From the literature researched, the writer thinks that environmental modifications along with multifactorial interventions can make a difference for falls that an elderly can receive. Still, he thinks that there should be more research done on environmental assessment tools, flooring, and effective behavioral interventions. On his last thoughts, he believes that strategies should be patient focused and environmental modifications should be developed for that individual.
Elderly patients require far more resources medically than younger patients with the same mechanism of injury (Dinh, Roncal, Byrne, & Petchell, 2013), and it is likely due to the deterioration of the body’s systems that come with age. As seen in Fig. 1, the two major causes of death for both sexes from age 65 – 84 are road traffic collisions (RTC) or falls. Figure 1 - The. Major causes of death due to unintentional injury between 2000-2002 (Retrieved from http://www.moh.govt.nz/moh.nsf/pagesmh/5795/$File/older-peoples-health-chart-book-2006-new.pdf).
Taking care of the individuals that are getting older takes many different needs. Most of these needs cannot be given from the help of a family. This causes the need of having to put your love one into a home and causing for the worry of how they will be treated. It is important for the family and also the soon to be client to feel at home in their new environment. This has been an issue with the care being provided for each individual, which has lead to the need of making sure individuals have their own health care plan.
With the aging population growing faster every year many families must make a difficult decision whether their loved ones should live in assisted living or nursing home facilities. I can relate because I made the decision to care for my mother at my home. Some people do not have the money or resources to care for their parent so they must live in a facility for health and safety reasons.
Another focus for change is that over the years the demand for home and community care over hospital care has continued to grow, as stated by the Queens nursing institute “Recent health policy points to the importance of improving and extending services to meet the health and care needs of an increasingly older population and provide services which may have previously been provided in hospital within community settings”.
...ed. Even though, there may not be a definite relationship between bereavement and depression, a person is grieving and does need support even when they may not ask for it. If a person cannot express their feelings about the death properly through, the steps of grieving than they may be at risk for depression. Slowly over time, many may face the challenge of vision and/or hearing loss, especially those over the age of 85 and at the same time, they are at a greater risk for mental health problems. The fact that one may be experiencing a loss of cognitive function and at the same time can be experiencing a sensory loss should have health care workers monitor that individuals overall health and report of quality of life more closer. When a person has a physical mobility deficit it also represents an array of various problems and issues that this person is faced with.
Another resource for these patients would be to access HELP. HELP is a program to help care for older adults by
Vassallo, M., Mallela, S., Williams, A., Kwan, J., Allen, S. & Sharma, J. (2009). Fall Risk Factors in Elderly Patients with Cognitive Impairment on Rehabilitation Wards. Japan Geriatrics Society, 9, 41-46.
Nachreiner, N. M., Findorff, M. J., Wyman, J. F., & McCarthy, T. C. (2007). Circumstances and consequences of falls in community-dwelling older women. Journal of Women's Health, 16(10),1437-1446. http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/jwh.2006.0245
Falls risk are a problem for older people because it exposes their vulnerability. Nurses can use the information from the article to promote quality practice for older people by understanding why falls would be negative stereotype relate to aging. The aging process is extremely difficult stage for older people and they are sensitive to everything, so nurses can use the article to avoid the word falls risk to refer to older people’s identity as individual. Nurses also can make sure they allow older people to perform activity independent, keep things in reach, and assistance them to go to the bathroom at night. That way they can still feel competent and responsible, even though they might be falls
"Who does a son turn to, when his 78 year-old mother, newly admitted to a nursing home’s rehab unit, is experiencing delusions and screams through the night? Or where does a daughter turn to for help when she notices a rapid decline in her mother’s health and her mother refuses to seek medical care? Or the gentleman who believes it is time to a continuing care retirement community, but has no one to advise him on the myriad of financial and lifestyle implications of such a move? (Lederman, 2012)." Within in the field of home health care, ecological system creates an outline for defining what it means to provide quality care to the elderly.
They may have a limited range of motion, and be reluctant to attempt movement, or experience a perceptual or cognitive impairment. They may experience pain, discomfort; depression or anxiety. Persons with these impairments require prolonged bed rest, and have medical restrictions. They may have musculoskeletal or neuromuscular impairments as well. Mobility is related to changes in a person 's body as they age as well. Loss in muscle strength and mass, less mobile and stiffer joints, as well as gait changes affect a person 's balance and they may significantly comprise their mobility. Mobility is crucial to the maintenance of independent living among seniors. If a person 's mobility is restricted, it affect their activities of daily living. NANDA defines physical and mobility impairment as a limitation in independent, purposeful physical movement of the body or of one or more extremities. According to them, the alteration in the person 's mobility may be either temporary, or more
• Poor balance, difficulties to walk: Older adults who have poor balance or difficulty walking are more likely than others to fall. These problems may be linked to a lack of exercise or to a neurological cause,