Baby boomers are growing older, and the younger generations are forced to find ways to help pay to send their grandmas and grandpas to nursing homes. In 2005 it cost America 5.6 million dollars to pay for long-term health care, in 2050 it is predicted to rise to a ridiculous number of 20.9 million. We’re already complaining the elderly nursing homes are too expensive as it is, but in 2050? How are we going to afford it then, with even less of a work force that we have now?
But is that what we should be doing? Should we send our elders off to unfamiliar homes where they have no control over their lives? Where, in some homes, they are disrespected and even abused?
In 2005, a study of Japan’s nursing homes revealed that 500 elderly people were abused. 190 patients were psychologically abused (caretakers ignored the elderly or used foul language out of irritation and anger), 130 patients were abused physically, and 110 were actually restrained, some even tied to a bed! (reuters) Is that how you want your dear old grandma to be treated? How awful! We should keep our elderly at home where they belong and we can keep a watch over them.
Already more than half of American elderly are taken care of by their friends and family, sometimes this voluntary care is over-stretched and unwelcome because of the high price of personal health bills. (forbes) However, if the government switched the funding from nursing homes to personal home care, not only would we be saving the nation money, but we’d also be making the elders happier! For the amount of money it costs to keep one person in a nursing home, it can pay for two people living at home!
In Psychology, a theorist did an experiment that involved patients in a nursing home. He predicted that having a choice over even the smallest matters (which side of the room you slept on, what your meals were for the week, which day you watched a movie, how many cookies you received) made the elderly patient happier and healthier. What he did not prophesize was the significance. In his experiment there was the control group (patients treated the normal way without any choice in their daily doings) and the variable group (patients who were given options to choose from). After the study was finished, the variable group lived ten years longer than the control group. That’s amazing! Imagine how much longer those patients could have lived if they were at home, cleaning their own laundry, making their own meals, and reading whichever book they chose. Nursing homes provide a very controlled environment, which causes patients to feel helpless and insignificant. (milforddailynews)
“At present, more than half the people in residential care are taken [to nursing homes] directly from a hospital ward and are given little choice.” (guardian) It’s unfair to force a person into a foreign environment, especially a scary and uncomfortable one. We should let the elderly decide where they want to live their last days. Who wants to die away from home, the place they’ve lived the majority of their lives, where their memories, comfort, family, friends, and love are?
“In Milwaukee, blacks were more than twice as likely as whites to live in a nursing home with inspection deficiencies, substantial staffing shortages, and financial problems.” (boston) Not only are some nursing homes inefficient, dirty, and unsafe, they’re also racist! Doesn’t that just add more to the growing problem?
Ask most any elderly, their response will most likely be a desire to live at home. I say let Grandma bake her cookies in her own dang oven!
http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x1775726724
http://www.forbes.com/home/business/2007/07/19/longterm-health-care-biz-...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2007/jul/29/uk.longtermcare
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/09/12/study_s...
http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUST27029220071204?feedTyp...
The study mirrors the experience my grandpa had as his health deteriorated. He had congestive heart failure, but he held on a long time. When his house and land got to be too much, he and my grandma moved into an accessible apartment. He had to give me his dog as pets weren't allowed, which was the first blow to his independence. Then no one would let him help pack or move because of his heart, so his kids came in and went through all his stuff. Then, when setting up the apartment, no one listened to him about where stuff should go. He wasn't allowed to drive anymore. He went down hill really fast once they moved, and I suspect it was the loss of independence that hastened the end. Just because his heart was failing, everyone assumed he was incapable of making decisions.
We don't value age and experience as an asset in the U.S.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
It is very interestin. As much as I agree with you, I have to disagree in a way. It may be very expensive to put grandma into a nursing home, but if the family can not atke care of her because she has a mental disease or they do not have the time to devote to her, it is a good alternative. I know from a fact from working in an assisted living home that the old people do get treated good most of the time. But yes, people can get frustrated with the elderly if they do not understand what they are going through. It is horrible about the abuse they can receive.