The Intervention Strategy - Paper Example

Introduction

Most ageing people in the United States have to face the fact that they will live nursing homes when they reach a certain age. Research indicates that more than 6% of people above the age of 65 end up in nursing homes. They reach an age in which they have to receive constant care and supervision. Even though the attitudes towards nursing homes vary from one culture to the other, the United States is very open to this as a way of taking care of the ageing population (Gaugler et al, 2015). Other cultures prefer to keep their elderly at home as a sign of gratitude and respect. For instance, the Indian culture abhors the aspect of nursing homes and views it as a form of abandonment that is a taboo. However, everything is different in western cultures and especially nursing homes. The elderly often need to live in nursing homes for their wellbeing. Their children and relatives work full time and may not have time to constantly supervise them. Additionally, many develop health complications that require professional care to ensure they have an opportunity to enjoy a higher quality of life. Therefore, many view nursing home as a solution that ensures adequate care towards their loved ones.

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The aspect of transition from home to a nursing facility is of utmost concern to social workers whose role includes the care of the elderly in their respective settings. Social workers have the responsibility of ensuring the elderly receive good care for their psychological, emotional, and physiological issues (Mozley et al, 2017). The topic is, therefore, important for the social workers because it concerns the needs of elderly people in the mentioned dimensions. The philosophy of social work premises on the notion that everyone deserves dignity and a feeling of self-worth. Social workers are advocates who believe in the ability of the society to provide a sense of fulfillment that helps its populace to live with dignity and self-worth. They are advocates of a higher quality of life that enables members of its population to feel more worthy as human beings (Kiosses et al, 2015). Social workers pursue the provision of enrichment for every member of the society in all aspects of their lives (Barber et al, 2015). They create options and provide hope where none existed before to ensure that everyone lives with dignity. Given this philosophy, one can note the responsibility of social workers to ensuring the wellbeing of elderly people who are often forgotten. The social workers should be aware of the difficulties faced by the elderly when they move from their homes to nursing facilities. Social workers are supposed to facilitate a healthy environment that will make this situation better for the aging (Barber et al, 2015). It is within their responsibility to tackle the emotional burdens that come with this transition and ensure the elderly have an environment that allows them compassion, stability, and emotional uplifting so that they feel dignified in this difficult change. Social workers can ensure their wellbeing by facilitating a friendly environment in the facilities. They can offer counseling services, advocate for better healthcare, and be the champions for compassionate treatment in these facilities.

Elderly people experience a sense of abandonment when they move to nursing care facilities. They feel abandoned by those people who are closest to them because they move away from homes in which they have lived all their lives to an unfamiliar place with strange people. Additionally, many experience traumatic symptoms when they make this change (Aneshensel et al, 2010). They develop feelings of loneliness, depression, anxiety, stress, irritability, and so on, all of which relate to the trauma they are facing after moving away from their homes. Additionally, several researchers like Aneshensel et al, (2010) have noted the increase in mortality rates among elders who relocate to nursing homes. The reason is the sudden state of loneliness that engulfs them when they move from their comfort and familiarity. Death becomes paramount as many lose their will to exist or fight any health issues they may be having. My personal experience can attest to some of these effects. My grandmother was a very jovial person prior to being taken to a nursing home. She was loving, bubbly, and full of life until it became apparent that she needed more care than the family could provide. After moving to the nursing home, she became depressed, highly irritable, and even developed mental illness. She forgot things and begun talking to herself. The relocation made her distraught since she believed it to be a form of abandonment. Therefore, there is need for intervention strategies that prevent such consequences and facilitate a higher quality of life among the elderly.

The Intervention Strategy

The patient-centered intervention strategy has several techniques that ensure the caregivers in the facility enhance their interactions with the elderly. They should use the patient-centered approach whenever they interact with the elderly in these facilities. In this approach, the caregiver initiates a relationship that puts the elderly person first. It includes aspects such as communicating with the patient in a way that makes them feel like human beings as opposed to undignified invalids (Wolff & Boyd, 2015). The process of communication should include sharing personal aspects of oneself with the individual with the hope that they will do the same. In this approach, the elderly do not feel like they are having a session with someone who is superior to them in any way because they recognize the caregiver as a friend (Osborn et al, 2014). The session is unstructured and simply encompasses the caregiver talking with the elderly person with the hope of finding out more about their lives. It is a sharing session in which everyone contributes equally to the communication in a relaxed manner.

The caregiver can also include activities that align with the needs of the elderly and aspects that they find interesting. For instance, social workers can find out from family members about the activities that their loved ones enjoy the most. They can then have a profile for each person in the nursing home that details their hobbies so that they know what to do when they interact with them (Kogan et al, 2016). They can play games, sing to them, read their favorite books, watch a movie, or do some decorations every time they sit down with the elderly person in the facilities. The activities have to be aspects that the elderly enjoy immensely. They have to feel that they are part of every single process that facilitates their attachment to the people around them (BrummelSmith, et al, 2016). All this time, the caregiver should maintain communication and make it a social session as opposed to an interrogative one. For instance, he or she can ask about an elderly person's daughter or son in the middle of playing cards with them. The approach places the patient first because the session taking place is focused on their needs as human beings.

The process can encompass asking the patient personal questions about their lives to showcase interest and ensuring one has non-verbal cues that communicate approachability such as a smile. The patient-centered approach treats the patient as a wholesome person who has various needs (BrummelSmith, et al, 2016). It recognizes these needs and enhances an interaction that is premised on the same. For instance, the caregiver might as the elderly person how they are feeling, what they think about the food, the weather, politics, or any treatment options they are undergoing. At this point, the cease to be any other elderly person in the facility and see themselves as human beings who can have a normal life and relationships with other people. The patient-centered approach has been widely applied in the clinical setting by various nurses to enhance the relationships they have with the patients. It is applicable in this setting too. The caregivers in nursing facilities can use it to create a bond with elderly people and encourage companionship as an intervention strategy.

The caregiver can also include family members when it is possible to do so. Companionship should include families during their visits to provide a friendlier environment (Corrigan, 2015). Social workers ought to be in cohorts with the families at all times. They should follow up on members to ensure they visit their elderly as often as it is reasonably possible and organize sessions in which the behavior of families is controlled to meet the needs of the elderly.

Moreover, in the person-centered approach, the caregiver should always ask the elderly person what they need and ensure that they follow-up on the answers provided. The whole point using this as an intervention strategy is to meet the needs of the elderly and put them first in the care process. Hence, the caregiver should always use the sessions to ensure they decipher what the elderly person requires by asking or making deductions from their statements and behaviors (Osborn et al, 2014). For instance, the caregiver or social worker may ask or observe the behavior of the patient during the sessions and learn that they miss their family. A follow-up of this knowledge would, therefore, include the social worker calls the family, organizes a video conference, or makes sure the individual has access to something that reminds them of their family members.

Rationale

The intervention strategy above has a series of techniques that can help to facilitate the wellbeing of elderly people in the society. The most important aspect about the strategy is that it eliminates isolation and loneliness and in term reduces the levels of aspects such as depression and anxiety. In this case, when social workers or the caregivers involve embark on a patient-centered approach to formulate companionship, they create bonds that enable the elderly to note that they are not alone (Kolanowski et al, 2015). The patient-centered approach has several techniques that make the bonding process easier and more authentic to towards the elderly. The aging have an opportunity to interact with another person from a humanistic point of view (Kogan et al, 2016). They feel a sense of being cared for away from the obligations of a case worker and can allow themselves to fill the void in their lives with an attachment towards the people with whom they interact on a frequent basis. The rationale is to create strong bonds with the people who are available and mimic the relationships that the elderly people may have left behind. For instance, if a case worker shares her personal story with the elderly person and encourages them to do the same, the process shifts from being a professional one to a more personal level. The same allows the two to create bonds that fulfill the needs of the person under care away from their homes. The result is that they become less depressed and begin looking at the nursing facility as their second home.

The intervention strategy is also important because it allows the caregiver and elderly person to communicate better. The same ensures they can meet their unique needs and make them less anxious about leaving their homes (Kolanowski et al, 2015). The aging suffer from aspects like depression and anxiety because of the unfamiliarity of their environments. Most cannot adjust to life away from the aspects to which they were accustomed in their previous home. They find the nursing facilities isolating and develop a crippling sense of loneliness. Therefore, the communication and activities facilitated by the caregiver in this intervention strategy enable them to cope with all of this. They can find comfort in the new relationships that they formulate duri...