Elderly Nursing Problems

張貼日期：Dec 01, 2016 2:41:13 PM

Felicia Chen

Along with ageing of population, each family is faced with the problems with elderly care to some extent. Actually, my family is one of those who face the elderly nursing problem. In this summer break, my grandmother fell unconsciously on the living room floor twice. The result of the health checkup showed that my grandma was ill with cancer and that means she must be tended to by at least one family member all the time. I realize from this experience three aspects about elderly nursing problems: requirement of long-term care, load of the family and the caregiver, and an impact on family relationship.

Long-term care is needed urgently in recent years. Because of medical advances, life expectancy has been increasing year by year. According to the statistics, aging population will grow more than doubled within the next twenty years. In this trend, long-term care becomes a big problem. Most elders are unable to move freely and have chronic diseases. They can’t live without others’ help. How to care for the elderly population has become an urgent matter in a modern society.

Nowadays it takes two salaries to support each home. And as both of a couple need to work, it’s hard to provide adequate family care to sick elderly family. If the family encounters the problem of care of the elderly, they have two options. One is to hire a caregiver to take care of the elderly. But it may cause the worry of the affordability of such arrangement. The other is to take care of the elderly by the family member. But it must be that one of the family members is free to take care of the elderly at all times. Without a doubt, other family members may not comprehend the burden of the one who takes care of the elderly. Then, it may cause trouble in the family.

With the difficulties of family care mode, the long-term care agency has an opportunity to grow. It is a way to substitute for family caring function. To hire a caregiver or send the elderly to the care facility is a convenient way, but it may cause an impact on family relationship. In Oriental culture, sending the elderly to a care facility may be considered impious and may cause hurt in the elderly.

In our family, the elderly nursing problem was solved because my aunt got retired by chance. The elderly nursing problem in my family was solved temporarily but it is a problem that cannot be solved once and for all. Every family faces the problem more or less, and they all have to come up with some arrangement to deal with the difficult situation.