The senior citizen population is bigger than ever before–and it continues to grow daily. We’ve been saying this often here on the Paradise In-Home Care blog, but there’s a good reason why. Not only does this mean that there is a growing number of elderly individuals in our country that might require senior care assistance, but the proportion of seniors is growing, too. In 2016, those that were aged 65 and older represented 15.2 percent of the U.S. population. That marked a 32 percent increase from ten years previously. Thanks to the large number of people that were born after the Second World War ended, this proportion is only going to continue to grow for the next twenty years.
Some parts of the country are experiencing this in more noticeable ways than others. For example, here in California, the rate of change that we’ve seen has increased by more than 38 percent in the last ten years. In states like Arizona and Nevada, the number has grown by more than 50 percent. The need for senior care is outpacing the national average in these areas, essentially placing senior citizens at risk of poor health and safety outcomes if nothing is done to resolve this issue.
The need for senior care is growing at a faster rate than other industries simply because there is a faster growing need for it. This is why we are seeing things like senior care shortages being spoken of in the news.
This doesn’t mean that we’re powerless to help our older loved ones.
Experts in different fields have been looking at how to improve care outcomes for the elderly. This isn’t always easy because different people have different needs. Not everyone needs the nursing home. Not everyone will benefit from the installation of more assisted living facilities. Something greater than this is needed if all seniors are going to see an improvement in their lives as the proportion of seniors continues to grow.
Recently, experts suggested three things that can be done to help a larger number of seniors. The first was to take steps to improve accessibility to prescription medications. This means lowering the cost of drugs that Medicare and Medicaid (Medi-Cal) might not completely cover the cost of.
The second step they listed was to improve communication between providers. Many places have Regional Health Information Organizations. Universalising this, and allowing more than just medical professionals to access the data (with consent, of course) could help to avoid a lot of confusion regarding which steps should be taken next with regards to someone’s health. Putting information regarding advance directives here could also be helpful for seniors regarding end of life decisions.
Finally, they recommended better use of telehealth. If there’s anything that we learned during COVID it’s that video chats can be used to do many things that we once did face to face. This would help a huge number of seniors that are homebound or otherwise have trouble getting around because of a lack of transportation or mobility issues.
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