About elder care

Elderly care is concerned with fulfillment of special needs and requirements unique to senior citizens. Caring for aging family members, domestic partners or close friends, is often full of challenges. This portion of society is more sensitive than young people and they often require a lot of care and attention. There are many different forms of elderly care, and their type and quality varies greatly among different countries and cultures. On a basic level, elderly care is provided within the family, but in modern societies this isn’t always possible, and this care is being provided by state or charitable institutions.

Assisted living

Assisted living residences are places that provide elderly people with assistance in normal daily activities. These services usually include assistance in taking medication or taking personal care, and are usually provided by trained personnel. Atypical assisted living residence is inhabited by elderly people who don’t require intensive care of a nursing home. These people generally need some assistance in daily activities and a bit of companionship. The average age of inhabitants of these institutions, in the United States, is 86.9 years.

Adult day care centers

Adult day care centers or adult day services usually operate 10 to 12 hours a day to provide meals, recreational and social outings, as well as general supervision for elderly and handicapped people. In most cases, these centers are equipped with nursing site, and they have a special room where patients can check their blood sugar, blood pressure, and other vital signs, by a medical worker. In the United States there are about 4,600 adult day centers servicing approximately 150,000 elderly Americans.

Long-term care

This is a special kind of elderly services that provides assistance in both medical and non-medical issues of people with chronic illness and disability. This system is developed especially for those individuals who are unable to care for themselves for long periods of time. In this type of institution, patients will get the assistance in normal daily tasks such as dressing, bathing, going to the toilet, and higher level of medical care. About 9 million Americans older than 65 are using Long-term care services.

Nursing home

Nursing homes are places of residence for individuals that require constant medical and nursing care, and who are significantly unable to conduct simple daily activities completely on their own. However, unlike all other types of institutions that provide elderly care, nursing homes are often inhabited with younger adults, also. Services provided include nursing aid, physical, occupational and speech therapy, social and recreational assistance, room, board and transportation.