Nursing Homes versus Home Nursing!
The controversy of sending the sick and or aged to a nursing home is perhaps as old as nursing homes exist.
While there may be many reasons for people to send a family member into a nursing home/old folks home there are equal number of reasons not to fall for a quick and "comfortable solution".
Let us look from a client’s point of view what it means to be sent to a nursing home.
First and foremost such a person, if still mentally alert, must feel to be deposited, discarded by the family and those she/he has been sharing their lives in the past. It must be assumed that in most cases it is the children who will make such a decision. These are the very same persons who have for all their lives benefited from the care and concern of the now elderly and needy family member.
I wonder whether the persons who make such a decision have ever considered how they would feel, if in the future their children or grandchildren would ‘discard’ them.
Have they ever taken time and contemplate what the person would feel once deposited in a nursing home?
I guess that most people do suppress any thinking in this direction. They just feel that the needy person becomes a burden and since she/he is no more "productive" is ready to be discarded or disregarded.
In the many visits I have made in nursing homes I have observed only one prevailing condition. That was "APATHY and DEPRESSION". It is not surprising, therefore, that about 50% of nursing cases sent into nursing homes pass away within the first 6 months
Apathy and loneliness are the main triggers for depression. Depression in return reduces the immune system. A low immune system makes subjects the person to get infected easily and even a simple cold will be enough to cause the final journey (death). What reason has a burden, discarded, useless, problem-creating and money consuming old and sickly person to fight for?
Where has the filial concern at one time the trade mark of Asian families gone? It has been sacrificed for the money and convenience of those concerned.
I am not intending to go into the conditions that exist in most nursing and old folks homes particularly those run on a commercial basis.
But anyone who has visited some of these homes would have noted that they do not meet with the minimal standard of humanity, respect and dignity.
For sure there are such medically complicated cases where it might be very difficult to keep a person in the family home setting. However these cases should be placed in medical and nursing homes where they can be attended to in a professional and
competent manner. I guess that the percentage of such severe medical conditions is below 5% of all nursing cases.
However in my experience in more that 10 years of home nursing/mobile nursing has shown that with proper professional and caring teams anyone can be attended to in their own home setting.
Even comatose patients with tracheotomy can be managed in the family setting provided the family is willing to cooperate and give the necessary support.
What happened to a person who is "comatose"? Does he still register the surrounding? No serious scientist dares to make a conclusive statement on this matter. However my professional experience has shown many a time that people were making clear signs on stimulations by the sound of a family member, a close friend, and/or certain melody of which the person was familiar with.
It is not unusual that even doctors in the hospital advise the family to look for a nursing home instead of looking at the option of caring for the patient in their own home setting with the available mobile home nursing.
More people grow older and are more likely to become nursing dependent at their final stage of life. Home nursing/mobile nursing should be the first option for anyone to be considered. Nursing homes should be the last option and be left for the absolutely difficult cases.
Mobile nursing which is able to provide any amount of support from simply giving a bath to a 24 hours general or medical nursing care is the correct and appropriate way of managing those who have spent their whole life being concerned about our welfare.
"Let us treat our beloved the same way we want to be treated when we grow old and dependent".
While there may be many reasons for people to send a family member into a nursing home/old folks home there are equal number of reasons not to fall for a quick and "comfortable solution".
Let us look from a client’s point of view what it means to be sent to a nursing home.
First and foremost such a person, if still mentally alert, must feel to be deposited, discarded by the family and those she/he has been sharing their lives in the past. It must be assumed that in most cases it is the children who will make such a decision. These are the very same persons who have for all their lives benefited from the care and concern of the now elderly and needy family member.
I wonder whether the persons who make such a decision have ever considered how they would feel, if in the future their children or grandchildren would ‘discard’ them.
Have they ever taken time and contemplate what the person would feel once deposited in a nursing home?
I guess that most people do suppress any thinking in this direction. They just feel that the needy person becomes a burden and since she/he is no more "productive" is ready to be discarded or disregarded.
In the many visits I have made in nursing homes I have observed only one prevailing condition. That was "APATHY and DEPRESSION". It is not surprising, therefore, that about 50% of nursing cases sent into nursing homes pass away within the first 6 months
Apathy and loneliness are the main triggers for depression. Depression in return reduces the immune system. A low immune system makes subjects the person to get infected easily and even a simple cold will be enough to cause the final journey (death). What reason has a burden, discarded, useless, problem-creating and money consuming old and sickly person to fight for?
Where has the filial concern at one time the trade mark of Asian families gone? It has been sacrificed for the money and convenience of those concerned.
I am not intending to go into the conditions that exist in most nursing and old folks homes particularly those run on a commercial basis.
But anyone who has visited some of these homes would have noted that they do not meet with the minimal standard of humanity, respect and dignity.
For sure there are such medically complicated cases where it might be very difficult to keep a person in the family home setting. However these cases should be placed in medical and nursing homes where they can be attended to in a professional and
competent manner. I guess that the percentage of such severe medical conditions is below 5% of all nursing cases.
However in my experience in more that 10 years of home nursing/mobile nursing has shown that with proper professional and caring teams anyone can be attended to in their own home setting.
Even comatose patients with tracheotomy can be managed in the family setting provided the family is willing to cooperate and give the necessary support.
What happened to a person who is "comatose"? Does he still register the surrounding? No serious scientist dares to make a conclusive statement on this matter. However my professional experience has shown many a time that people were making clear signs on stimulations by the sound of a family member, a close friend, and/or certain melody of which the person was familiar with.
It is not unusual that even doctors in the hospital advise the family to look for a nursing home instead of looking at the option of caring for the patient in their own home setting with the available mobile home nursing.
More people grow older and are more likely to become nursing dependent at their final stage of life. Home nursing/mobile nursing should be the first option for anyone to be considered. Nursing homes should be the last option and be left for the absolutely difficult cases.
Mobile nursing which is able to provide any amount of support from simply giving a bath to a 24 hours general or medical nursing care is the correct and appropriate way of managing those who have spent their whole life being concerned about our welfare.
"Let us treat our beloved the same way we want to be treated when we grow old and dependent".
For further information about MOBILE NURSING or MOBILE DOCTOR contact:
Home Nursing Providers Tel +6 03 78777202
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