The Heart of Long Term Care


Book Description

Long-term care in the United States has taken the nursing home as its benchmark, but the monetary, social, and psychological costs of nursing home care are all too high. This book challenges the current dominance of nursing homes as the principal institution of long-term care. It offers a series of alternative models where both services and housing can be provided in a way that allows long-term consumers to enjoy dignified, "normal" lifestyles. It addresses the political and economic consequences of making this decision. The authors start with the premise that long-term care is designed to assist people who lack the capacity to function fully independently. They argue that no disabled person of any age should be required to forsake his/her humanity in exchange for care. The book rejects the artificial dichotomy between social and medical care, asserting that both play important roles in psychological and physical well-being of long-term care patients. The authors consider the need for competent and compassionate medicine and discuss the methods for improving both its coordination of care and its effectiveness. The book redefines the meaning of safety and protection in long-term care, and how this goal can be accomplished without sacrificing quality of living. As the new millennium and the aging of baby boomers approaches, more creative approaches to providing better long-term care are required. This volume outlines a useful framework for the provision of effective and humane community-based programs that are both feasible and affordable. It will be an invaluable guide for geriatricians, public health professionals, family physicians, nurses and others who care for elderly patients.




Improving the Quality of Long-Term Care


Book Description

Among the issues confronting America is long-term care for frail, older persons and others with chronic conditions and functional limitations that limit their ability to care for themselves. Improving the Quality of Long-Term Care takes a comprehensive look at the quality of care and quality of life in long-term care, including nursing homes, home health agencies, residential care facilities, family members and a variety of others. This book describes the current state of long-term care, identifying problem areas and offering recommendations for federal and state policymakers. Who uses long-term care? How have the characteristics of this population changed over time? What paths do people follow in long term care? The committee provides the latest information on these and other key questions. This book explores strengths and limitations of available data and research literature especially for settings other than nursing homes, on methods to measure, oversee, and improve the quality of long-term care. The committee makes recommendations on setting and enforcing standards of care, strengthening the caregiving workforce, reimbursement issues, and expanding the knowledge base to guide organizational and individual caregivers in improving the quality of care.




Managing the Long-Term Care Facility


Book Description

Practical approaches to the operation of long-term care facilities Managing the Long-Term Care Facility provides a comprehensive introduction to the growing field of long-term care. Taking a continuum-of-care approach, the text covers every aspect of long-term care. Readers will develop a robust knowledge of the issues faced by people experiencing physical and or mental changes. Topics covered include the biological and psychosocial implications of ageing, marketing long-term care, facility operations, and information technology for health care, among many others. By integrating all aspects of long-term care, the book is an invaluable resource that will aid students and professionals in preparing for career advancement and licensure exams. The book is also is designed to help students prepare for the National Nursing Home Administrator exam. Pedagogical elements help guide readers through the content, and summaries and discussion questions to drive home lessons learned. Builds expert knowledge of all aspects of long-term care management, including operations, human resources, patient advocacy, and information systems Emphasizes the latest understandings of the long-term care continuum and patient-centered care for diverse populations Delivers practical approaches to providing quality care to individuals and making a positive impact on community wellbeing Prepares readers for and National Nursing Home Administrator's licensure exam Managing the Long-Term Care Facility: Practical Approaches to Providing Quality Care provides real-world guidance for students in healthcare administration, health and human services, gerontology, nursing, business and medical programs, in both domestic and international markets. Nursing home administrators, administrators-in-training and preceptors will find this book an effective training tool in the nursing facility setting.




Critical Thinking in Long-term Care Nursing


Book Description

Critical Thinking in Long-Term Care Nursing: Skills to Assess, Analyze and Act, is an easy-to-read resource that explains the principles of critical thinking and how to encourage nurses to use critical thinking methods. This essential book covers how to lead classroom sessions for new graduate nurses and experienced nurses to develop critical thinking skills, including successful classroom processes and learning strategies.




Long-term Caring


Book Description

"Long-term Caring has been updated throughout and addresses the requirements of the National Aged Care Training Package for students undertaking the Certificate III in Aged Care. Written by leading educators and practitioners from Australia and New Zealand, the text provides information on all aspects of personal caring to prepare students for work in a range of aged care settings. The focus is on the delivery of long-term care that complements an individual's needs and enhances quality of life." --Back cover.




Happily Ever Older


Book Description

While Being Mortal (Atul Gawande) helped us understand disease and death, and Successful Aging (Daniel J. Levitin) showed us older years can be a time of joy and resilience, Happily Ever Older reveals how the right living arrangements can create a vibrancy that defies age or ability. Reporter Moira Welsh has spent years investigating retirement homes and long-term care facilities and wants to tell the dangerous stories. Not the accounts of falls or bedsores or overmedication, but of seniors living with purpose and energy and love. Stories that could change the status quo. Welsh takes readers across North America and into Europe on a whirlwind tour of facilities with novel approaches to community living, including a day program in a fake town out of the 1950s, a residence where seniors school their student roommates in beer pong, and an aging-in-place community in a forest where everyone seems to have a pet or a garden or both. The COVID-19 pandemic cruelly showed us that social isolation is debilitating, and Welsh tells stories of elders living with friendship, new and old, in their later years. Happily Ever Older is a warm, inspiring blueprint for change, proof that instead of warehousing seniors, we can create a future with strong social connections and a reason to go on living.







Handbook of Long-Term Care Administration and Policy


Book Description

Attitudes toward long-term care contain a strong residue of negativity in today‘s society and current problems with the system augment such perceptions. Unless dealt with now, this will only get worse, as the 85-and-older crowd is the fastest growing part of the population, and the first wave of Baby Boomers is approaching 60. Exploring and delinea




Long Term Care Services in the United States: 2013 Overview


Book Description

Long-term care services include a broad range of services that meet the needs of frail older people and other adults with functional limitations. Long-Term care services provided by paid, regulated providers are a significant component of personal health care spending in the United States. This report presents descriptive results from the first wave of the National Study of Long-Term Care Providers (NSLTCP), which was conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). This report provides information on the supply, organizational characteristics, staffing, and services offered by providers of long-term care services; and the demographic, health, and functional composition of users of these services. Service users include residents of nursing homes and residential care communities, patients of home health agencies and hospices, and participants of adult day services centers.




Long-Term Conditions


Book Description

"This book is a very welcome tool, which will enable health professionals to understand the complexity, challenge and rewards of proactively managing long-term conditions. Putting this knowledge into skilled practice, in partnership with patients, will transform the lives of many individuals and their families, and thus fulfil the fundamental purpose of nursing." —From the Foreword by Professor Rosemary Cook CBE, Director, the Queen's Nursing Institute and Visiting Professor of Enterprise, University of Northumbria Long-Term Conditions is a comprehensive, practical guide for nurses and healthcare professionals on the care and management of people with chronic illness. It explores case management, individual care and management, the role of the 'expert patient', quality-of-life issues, counselling skills, self-management, and optimum self-care. Long-Term Conditions discusses the three main long-term conditions currently resulting in most hospital admissions: diabetes, respiratory, and coronary heart disease, with a focus on empowering the patient to self-manage. Key Features: A comprehensive guide to the care and management of long-term conditions Focuses on the management of the conditions from the patients' perspective Practical and accessible in style