Comprehensive Elderly Assessment: Essential for Health Risks - Free Paper Example

Introduction

The comprehensive preliminary assessment for the elderly is essential in offering the scope of the functionality of a person either physically, mentally, cognitively, and socioeconomically. A healthcare provider may initiate the assessment upon identification of potential health risk in a person. Also, the process is significant because it allows for the diagnosis, treatment and medication, follow-ups, and the progress of the affected person. The evaluation focuses on aspects such as hearing, nutrition, body balance, vision, among others. The assessment's effectiveness is that it requires a team to undertake the entire process, which eases the workload and ensures that quality and accurate conclusions arise. More so, the outcomes obtained have the attribute of comprehensiveness as they highlight the possible medical and psychosocial problems affecting a person and seek a solution in time. For this reason, this paper will comprise a distinct conclusion drawn from the comprehensive assessment of a 70-year-old as per the data collected.

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Preliminary Condition Questionnaire

From the preliminary condition analysis, the person knows their name and the year they were born but not the date. Besides, she knows the name of the current president and the one before him and the maiden name of her mother. However, she believes that she would not benefit from a legal guardian, and she does not have a living will and does not have an interest in one. She does not know the date of filling out the questionnaire and has not memorized her telephone number (Morris et al., 1997). Besides, she made errors while responding to the subtraction question.

Demographic Data

The person under study is a female aged 70 years. She is an immigrant of Hispanic origin. Her highest level of education is high school.

Social Support

She is widowed and lives with the son's family, whose members are the wife and two children. The grandkids work in the city, and she usually communicates with them via the phone at least two times a week. She is satisfied with living with her son's family. However, she does not have friends, as most of them are already dead. The son has employed a chore worker who undertakes the cleaning and tidying of the house and offering any other assistance necessary. Living with the extended family ensures that the older person has the social support needed to promote her health and prolong her life. The woman lives in an assisted living residence, and the housing is proper, which ensures environmental safety and lessens the occurrences of accidents. Living with other people assures an active social interaction network and the availability of other supportive resources (Jiang & Li, 2016).

Financial Data

The old lady owns the house, and she is under the Medicare insurance cover, and she does not face the challenge of unpaid bills as the son caters to all of them. Besides, she is eligible for old people benefits provided either locally or nationally. Long-term care insurance, coupled with the benefits, has the capability of enabling the woman to pay her bills (Stuck & Iliffe, 2011). More so, the son chips in to offer financial assistance.

Psychological Health Data

The lady feels interested in what she does daily and feels weak, happy, and loved. Her sleep is fitful, and her satisfaction with her current life is good. Besides, she thinks that there is no need for a counselor or psychiatrist. The patient has a poor memory, which could account for dementia as she forgets to take her medication at times, and she does not remember her telephone number.

Physical Health Data

For the past month, the lady was sick for five days, and she rates her overall health as fair. Assessing the physical health required analysis of conventional medical history, which mainly contains the social and family history, existing and previous medical issues, as well as demographic information. Physical examination of the older person is vital in determining the main medical problem as it focuses on topics such as hearing, vision, nutrition, and balance, and fall prevention (Gurland et al., 1978). The person under study experiences poor sight where she cannot see the names saved in her cellphone and has to seek assistance.

The patient suffers from unintentional leakage of urine, which is associated with urinary tract infections or renal failure, which constitutes urinary continence. Such an occurrence may affect a person's psychosocial setup, which may cause low self-esteem and limitation of social activities due to the fear of shame.

Activities of Daily Living Data

It is clear that the person under study requires assistance, and they cannot handle various activities on their own. It explains the reason as to why she has a chore worker to assist in activities such as shopping, transportation, and meal preparation. The person may probably have the challenge of falls and balance, which requires that they are kept under the care of another person to lessen accidents. Osteoporosis is one of the medical conditions that the lady could be suffering from because it affects the joints and bones of women over 65 years old (Stuck & Iliffe, 2011). Thus, there is a high probability of a woman suffering from a hip joint fracture.

References

Gurland, B., Kuriansky, J., Sharpe, L., Simon, R., Stiller, P., & Birkett, P. (1978). The Comprehensive Assessment and Referral Evaluation (CARE)—rationale, development, and reliability. The International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 8(1), 9-42. https://doi.org/10.2190/CL3J-0E20-97XX-MV5L

Jiang, S., & Li, P. (2016). Current development in elderly comprehensive assessment and research methods. BioMed research international, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/3528248

Morris, J. N., Fries, B. E., Steel, K., Ikegami, N., Bernabei, R., Carpenter, G. I., ... & Topinková, E. (1997). Comprehensive clinical assessment in community setting: applicability of the MDSHC. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 45(8), 1017-1024. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-5415.1997.tb02975.x

Stuck, A. E., & Iliffe, S. (2011). Comprehensive geriatric assessment for older adults. doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.d6799