Problems with Falls In Nursing Homes in New York City

 

Falls are the leading cause of fatal and non-fatal injuries for older Americans. Falls threaten seniors’ safety and independence and generate enormous economic and personal costs.

Falls are the leading cause of death, injury and hospital admissions among the elderly population. In fact, one out of every four seniors falls every year. Each year, more than 2.8 million fall-related injuries are treated in emergency rooms.

However, falling is not an inevitable result of aging. Through practical lifestyle adjustments, evidence-based falls prevention programs, and clinical-community partnerships, the number of falls among seniors can be substantially reduced.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

One-fourth of Americans aged 65+ falls each year.
Every 11 seconds, an older adult is treated in the emergency room for a fall; every 19 minutes, an older adult dies from a fall.
Falls are the leading cause of fatal injury and the most common cause of nonfatal trauma-related hospital admissions among older adults.
Falls result in more than 2.8 million injuries treated in emergency departments annually, including over 800,000 hospitalizations and more than 27,000 deaths.

Several factors contribute to the fact that seniors fall so much more frequently than younger people:

Lack of Physical Activity. Failure to exercise regularly results in poor muscle tone, decreased bone mass, loss of balance and reduced flexibility.

Impaired Vision. This includes age-related eye diseases, as well as not wearing glasses that have been prescribed.

Medications. Sedatives, anti-depressants, anti-psychotic drugs, and taking multiple medications can all increase the risk of falling.

Diseases. Health conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and arthritis cause weakness in the extremities, poor grip strength, balance disorders and cognitive impairment.
Surgery. Hip replacements and other surgeries can leave an elderly person weak, in pain and discomfort, and less mobile than they were before the procedure. This can be temporary while a patient heals or a new and lasting problem.

Environmental Hazards. One-third of all falls in the elderly population involve hazards at home. Factors include poor lighting, loose carpets and lack of safety equipment.
In spite of these risk factors, falls are not an inevitable part of growing older. Many falls can be prevented by making homes safer and using mobility products that help keep seniors more stable.

Prevalence of Heart Failure in the Elderly

The prevalence of heart failure (HF) increases with age. While clinical trials suggest that contemporary evidence-based HF therapies have reduced morbidity and mortality, these trials largely excluded the elderly. Questions remain regarding the clinical characteristics of elderly HF patients and the impact of contemporary therapies on their outcomes.

In heart failure, the heart cannot pump enough blood through the body. The heart cannot fill with enough blood or pump with enough force, or both. Heart failure develops over time as the pumping action of the heart gets weaker. It can affect either the right, the left, or both sides of the heart. Heart failure does not mean that the heart has stopped working or is about to stop working.

Heart failure can also be called congestive heart failure, systolic heart failure, diastolic heart failure, left-sided heart failure, or right-sided heart failure. In most cases, heart failure affects the left side of the heart when it cannot pump enough oxygen-rich blood to the rest of the body. When heart failure affects the right side, the heart cannot pump enough blood to the lungs, where it picks up oxygen.

Regardless of the specific definition for elderly, it is clear that HF is primarily a condition of the older population in developed countries. Elderly HF patients demonstrate distinctive pathophysiological features, complex co-morbidity profiles, and unique issues of medication tolerance.

Major Social problems as we get older

It is said that in 2050, the senior age population will increase over 88.5 million.

With the consistent research of medicines, it is expanding the life expectancy of everyone.
People are living longer and healthier lives which is allowing them to continue to work.
An advantage for an elder searching for a job is that there is a demand for experienced workers.

Safety and Security

Some problems with aging is elder abuse physical, sexual, psychological, financial, neglect, and abandonment.
Home, health care, and medical care are provided for patients who can not leave their home.
Short term aid is only available to patients with 6 months or less to live

Senior Care Behind Closed Doors

The quality of a nursing home depends on who is funding it.
State funded homes provide poorer care than those that are privately funded.
The Nursing Home Reform Act high lighted the abuse and neglect of residents in nursing homes across the United States.

Getting old isn’t nearly as bad as people think it will be. Nor is it quite as good.

On aspects of everyday life ranging from mental acuity to physical dexterity to sexual activity to financial security, a new Pew Research Center Social & Demographic Trends survey on aging among a nationally representative sample of 2,969 adults finds a sizable gap between the expectations that young and middle-aged adults have about old age and the actual experiences reported by older Americans themselves.

These disparities come into sharpest focus when survey respondents are asked about a series of negative benchmarks often associated with aging, such as illness, memory loss, an inability to drive, an end to sexual activity, a struggle with loneliness and depression, and difficulty paying bills. In every instance, older adults report experiencing them at lower levels (often far lower) than younger adults report expecting to encounter them when they grow old.1

At the same time, however, older adults report experiencing fewer of the benefits of aging that younger adults expect to enjoy when they grow old, such as spending more time with their family, traveling more for pleasure, having more time for hobbies, doing volunteer work or starting a second career.

Family Relationships

Staying in Touch with the Kids. Nearly nine-in-ten adults (87%) ages 65 and older have children. Of this group, just over half are in contact with a son or daughter every day, and an additional 40% are in contact with at least one child–either in person, by phone or by email–at least once a week. Mothers and daughters are in the most frequent contact; fathers and daughters the least. Sons fall in the middle, and they keep in touch with older mothers and fathers at equal rates. Overall, three-quarters of adults who have a parent or parents ages 65 and older say they are very satisfied with their relationship with their parent(s), but that share falls to 62% if a parent needs help caring for his or her needs.

Was the Great Bard Mistaken? Shakespeare wrote that the last of the “seven ages of man” is a second childhood. Through the centuries, other poets and philosophers have observed that parents and children often reverse roles as parents grow older. Not so, says the Pew Research survey. Just 12% of parents ages 65 and older say they generally rely on their children more than their children rely on them. An additional 14% say their children rely more on them. The majority–58%–says neither relies on the other, and 13% say they rely on one another equally. Responses to this question from children of older parents are broadly similar.

Transfers within Families.

Despite these reported patterns of non-reliance, older parents and their adult children do help each other out in a variety of ways. However, the perspectives on these transfers of money and time differ by generation. For example, about half (51%) of parents ages 65 and older say they have given their children money in the past year, while just 14% say their children have given them money. The intra-family accounting comes out quite differently from the perspective of adult children.

Among survey respondents who have a parent or parents ages 65 or older, a quarter say they received money from a parent in the past year, while an almost equal share (21%) say they gave money to their parent(s). There are similar difference in perception, by generation, about who helps whom with errands and other daily activities. (To be clear, the survey did not interview specific pairs of parents and children; rather, it contacted random samples who fell into these and other demographic categories.) Not surprisingly, as parents advance deeper into old age, both they and the adult children who have such parents report that the balance of assistance tilts more toward children helping parents.

 

End-of-Life Matters.

More than three-quarters of adults ages 65 and older say they’ve talked with their children about their wills; nearly two-thirds say they’ve talked about what to do if they can no longer make their own medical decisions, and more than half say they’ve talked with their children about what to do if they can no longer live independently. Similar shares of adult children of older parents report having had these conversations. Parents and adult children agree that it is the parents who generally initiate these conversations, though 70% of older adults report that this is the case, compared with just 52% of children of older parents who say the same.

Check out the states with the best Nursing Homes and Assisted Living.

1. Maine (4.33 / 5.00 stars)
2. Utah (4.30 / 5.00 stars)
3. New Hampshire (4.23 / 5.00 stars)
4. Rhode Island (4.19 / 5.00 stars)
5. Alabama (4.13 / 5.00 stars)
6. Kansas (4.12 / 5.00 stars)
7. Kentucky (4.11 / 5.00 stars)
8. Tennessee (4.09 / 5.00 stars)
9. Delaware (4.08 / 5.00 stars)
10. Missouri (4.07 / 5.00 stars)
11. Idaho (4.07 / 5.00 stars)
12. South Carolina (4.05 / 5.00 stars)
13. Oklahoma (4.05 / 5.00 stars)
14. Louisiana (4.05 / 5.00 stars)
15. Colorado (4.04 / 5.00 stars)
16. Connecticut (4.03 / 5.00 stars)
17. Illinois (4.02 / 5.00 stars)
18. Nebraska (4.02 / 5.00 stars)
19. Arizona (4.02 / 5.00 stars)
20. Texas (4.01 / 5.00 stars)
21. New Jersey (4.01 / 5.00 stars)
22. Ohio (3.99 / 5.00 stars)
23. North Carolina (3.98 / 5.00 stars)
24. Oregon (3.97 / 5.00 stars)
25. New York (3.97 / 5.00 stars)
26. Georgia (3.97 / 5.00 stars)
27. Pennsylvania (3.96 / 5.00 stars)
28. Virginia (3.95 / 5.00 stars)
29. Wisconsin (3.95 / 5.00 stars)
30. Michigan (3.94 / 5.00 stars)

 

Some of the Problems with Getting Older

Because of various new medicines and surgical techniques, people are living longer.
The most widespread conditions affecting those 65 and older include arthritis, heart disease, stroke, cancer, pneumonia and the flu. Accidents, especially falls that result in hip fractures, are also unfortunately common in the elderly.

A lot of our elders are coping with at least one of the following conditions, and many are dealing with two or more of the following:

Heart conditions (hypertension, vascular disease, congestive heart failure, high blood pressure and coronary artery disease)

Osteoporosis
Diabetes
Frequent falls, which can lead to fractures
Parkinson’s disease

Dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease
Depression
Incontinence (urinary and bowel)
Arthritis
Cancer
Eye problems (cataracts, glaucoma, Macular Degeneration)
Weight loss
As the body changes, other things to be aware of are:

A slowed reaction time, which is especially important when judging whether a person can safely drive.
Thinner skin, which can lead to tears or wounds that heal very slowly.
A weakened immune system, which can make fighting off viruses, bacteria and diseases difficult.
A diminished sense of taste or smell, especially for smokers, which can lead to diminished appetite and dehydration.
The list can seem daunting. However, with proper care and support, elders can lead a life filled with joy.

Nursing Home and Loneliness in the elderly

One of the most prevalent ongoing issues with patients with nursing homes is loneliness.  I feel like everyone have been lonely at some point in their life, but it does have a major effect on the seniors.

Lets look at a definition of loneliness.

Loneliness  is the unpleasant feeling of emptiness or desolation can creep in and cause suffering to people at any age. But it can be especially debilitating to older adults and may predict serious health problems and even death, according to a new study by UCSF researchers.

I personally know plenty of elderly and lonely people in New York City, regardless of the density and the population of this large city… loneliness and isolation is actually more of a common prevalent incident. 

Lonely Without Being Alone

One of the more surprising findings in an analysis study is that loneliness does not necessarily correlate with living alone. The study found 43 percent of surveyed older adults felt lonely, yet only 18 percent lived alone.

Researchers at UCSF focused on death and a decrease in the ability to perform daily activities such as upper extremity tasks, climbing stairs, and walking.

People who identified themselves as lonely had an adjusted risk ratio of 1.59 or a statistically significant 59 percent greater risk of decline. For death, the hazard ratio was 1.45 or 45 percent greater risk of death.

“This is one of those outcomes you don’t want to see because it was terrible to find out it was actually true,”.  “We went into the analysis thinking that there was a risk we could find nothing, but there actually was a strong correlation.”

Depression vs. Loneliness

I clearly believe the impact of loneliness on an elderly patient is different from the effects of depression.   Although both patients may exhibit some common characterestics, they are still very different from each other.

While depression is linked with a lack enjoyment, energy and motivation, loneliness can be felt in people who are fully functional but feel empty or desolate.

The “baby boomer” generation — those born between 1946 and 1964 — represents the largest population growth in U.S. history. Some of them now are part of the 39.6 million population of people older than 65. That number is expected to more than double to 88.5 million by 2050.

As that population continues to expand, it is important to be able to start to integrate social and medical services for elderly patients more comprehensively, and be more mindful of what kinds of social interventions they require.

“Asking about chronic diseases is not enough,”. “There’s much more going on in people’s homes and their communities that is affecting their health.  If we don’t ask about it, we are missing a very important and independent risk factor.

It is always important to pay attention and be mindul to our elderly person`s needs and emotional situation,  this has a huge impact on their survival and well being.